Greater engagement starts with leaders

It’s important to cultivate a belief in the power of engagement across your entire company. And the first step is making engaging leadership part of your culture. To drive this, focus on four key steps. First, measure engagement levels through a survey. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Next, actively develop engaging leaders. Use workshops and coaching to help managers make engaging behaviours more habitual. Then, select engaging leaders to fill high-impact roles. Use tools like 360 reviews to assess and predict whether someone can improve his engagement skills. Finally, reward the engagement you achieve. Tying incentives to engagement survey scores can be tricky, but you need to get serious about recognising leaders who are engaging — and holding accountable those who are not.

(Adapted from What Makes Someone an Engaging Leader, by Ken Oehler, Lorraine Stomski and Magdalena Kustra-Olszewska)

Prioritise good communication

Global virtual teams are becoming more common. And because it’s harder to keep people in different regions of the world on track, you need to make sure that people are communicating as effectively as possible. Here are some ideas to try:

Make email a priority. Instant messaging relies on everyone being there at the same time. Email, on the other hand, can be totally asynchronous as it fits time zone differences and keeps teams in rhythm together.

Be intentionally positive. It’s easy for things to sound negative in an email. Sarcasm and humor can come across the wrong way, but being friendly and approachable is always welcome — even if it means using emoticons.

Offer suggestions, not critiques. ‘I don’t get it’ can steer the conversation into a dead end. People should always suggest an alternative instead of simply sharing their dislike for an idea.

(Adapted from Communication Tips for Global Virtual Teams, by Paul Berry)

Don’t give feedback when you don’t need to

While feedback should be a regular part of work, not every behaviour warrants input. For example, you shouldn’t offer corrective feedback just because someone has a different work process — even if it stresses you out. So before you deliver feedback, think about what you’re trying to achieve. And avoid giving it when:

You do not have all the information

It concerns something that the recipient can’t control The person appears to be highly emotional or especially vulnerable You don’t have time to explain it thoroughly It’s based on a personal preference, not a need for more effective behaviour

(Adapted from Giving Effective Feedback, from the 20-Minute Manager series)

Make it easier for your team to keep learning

Leaders want employees to continue to learn and develop new skills, but this wish will fall flat if people aren’t given extra support. You might encourage employees to sign up for extra training and courses, but not many people will have time to engage properly, or at all, if their workloads remain the same and their studying has to be done after hours. If you truly want to promote more learning among your team, start by giving people opportunities to develop at work. Give them stretch assignments and more autonomy. Make sure your team has access to the resources they need to learn and grow. Use mentoring to connect younger stars with seasoned executives. Establish regular check-ins to provide feedback, and measure progress through 360 reviews. You can also fuel development by giving rewards such as promotions and stock ownership.

(Adapted from How to Keep Learning and Still Have a Life, by Lisa Burrell)

Be skeptical of data

Managers shouldn’t take important analyses at face value, even if it is easy to be seduced by good news. In fact, when it comes to data, err on the side of skepticism. For example, if a company sees that its website traffic is up, it might be tempted to celebrate and continue doing what it’s doing. But if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. A deeper dive might reveal that mobile traffic is actually flat, and if that company is interested in mobile platforms, it should look closely at its strategy. Always dig as deeply into the data as you can, make sure it is accurate and make sure you understand the real-life processes that produced it. Seek confirmatory data sources and develop new ways to explore the conventional wisdom.

(Adapted from When It Comes to Data, Skepticism Matters, by Thomas C. Redman)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, February 9th, 2015

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