Okay, so there’s no "dating" period in the "marriage" of an employee and employer – but there should be "engagement’ – continued, consistent and communicated.
Friend Michael Keen at Entisys pointed me to a stellar article from CIO, Get Engaged. In it, writer John Boldoni points out four ways a manager can engage with their team:
- Communicate the Difference – Be specific as to what roles each person plays and how their efforts will pay off.
- Reinvent the Job – When things become rote, job skills atrophy. Time to re-energize the troops!
- Let Them Try Their Wings – Give their ideas a chance, let people prove themselves. If the risk is not high, even a mistake could be a successful learning experience.
- Make it Pay – Find out what motivates your team. Different people may have different motivators. Reward success, Rinse, Repeat.
I can almost hear ya – "We’re too busy doing our own job!" So what to do, what to do…
Make Yourself Obsolete: A great leader will make themselves obsolete. One way to do this, is to train others (wow – that would almost hit on all four points) and delegate.
Write an Internal Blog: What – you think I’m going to skip this subject? Put a blog behind your firewall, equip your team with the feed and engage in a conversation with them. It’s a team, after all.
Make Others Greater Than Yourself: Yes, it’s a Radical Agenda, but you are a "leader", right?
