Driving Your Team Effectively
If you have ever read the questions on a typical employee engagement survey and studied the data on the percentages of people who identified as “disengaged” or “actively disengaged,” you understand the scope of the problem and see the road map to a solution. Typical survey questions ask if people know what is expected of them at work, if they have the tools and resources to meet performance expectations, if their supervisor or someone else at work seems to care about them, if they feel recognized for their performance or discuss their progress or career goals.
Effective team management begins with your ability to create a team environment or culture that inspires the hearts and engages the minds of each team member. Inspiring hearts is all about your behaviors and ability to eliminate fear, build trust and gain respect. Engaging minds is about establishing strategies and processes to involve every member in team planning, performance improvement and decision-making activities. The approach is simple, conceptually. The challenge lies with execution. Here are five things to focus on to maximize team engagement and effectiveness.
YOUR BEHAVIORS DRIVE TEAM OUTCOMES
As Stephen M. R. Covey observed, “We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior.” I also recall the second habit in his father’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which tells us to “begin with the end in mind.” I learned very early in life that my passion and intention, personally and professionally, is service to others. The end that I have in mind for every interaction is to “leave people better than I found them,” as Marvin J. Ashton said. Once I understood my intention is service to others, it was easy to see how my behaviors drove my team’s outcomes.
Self-awareness and humility are invaluable skills to have and critical to team engagement. When people judge you by your actions, they can easily see where the gaps and disconnects are.
ENGAGEMENT IS CONNECTING
Credibility is every leader’s greatest capital and it takes some unique skills and time to bank enough to build trust, gain respect and eliminate fear. Those who possess and deploy behaviors like self-awareness, humility, gratitude and empathy are more effective at building strong connections that enable team members to change their behaviors to align with team values and goals. I’ve yet to see that a manager’s ego, arrogance, insecurity, shallowness, superficiality and insecurities can produce the same result. These behaviors are great examples that support the data that suggests people leave managers, not companies.
AGGRESSIVELY SEEK FEEDBACK
Data-driven decision-making is a basic principle that involves the collection of information to assess business performance. One of the easiest ways to begin to engage the minds of your team members and to bank credibility is to ask for their feedback on anything and everything that you can think of to improve team performance and operational results. You can get 10 times the benefit by specifically asking for feedback on your performance. Little things can make a huge difference, and it takes just a few seconds and a few words to make someone feel valued, respected and significant.
One of the root causes of employee disengagement is their perception that their manager doesn’t engage or interact with them in a meaningful or positive way. Many managers use the biz babble phrase “feedback is a gift” when they are providing it, but go to great lengths to avoid receiving it. Being humble enough, vulnerable enough and strong enough to receive and use the feedback of others is a huge differentiator when people judge your actions.
ACCOUNTABILITY EQUALS CREDIBILITY
I’ve coached and consulted with many executives, corporate and entrepreneurs, who believe making people accountable for their performance is somehow a bad thing. I’ve always found the opposite to be true. Today’s workers welcome accountability as they understand the value of meeting standards and expectations and see it as important for their personal and professional development. Today’s companies need accountability to maximize performance, productivity and profitability.
Accountability doesn’t have to be punitive or focus solely on negative performance. Performance standards and expectations just need to be clear and apply equally to each team member. Nothing will destroy your personal credibility and team culture faster than not holding everyone equally accountable for meeting all team performance standards and expectations. I’ve seen many examples of managers showing favoritism or ignoring the bad and disruptive behaviors of their top performers. This is just another reason people leave managers, not companies.
USE YOUR TOUCH POINTS
Every interaction you have with your team members is an opportunity to inspire and engage. Every individual or team meeting, coaching and development session, performance observation or review, hallway encounter, and any other contact you have can be used to say hello, ask a simple question, show appreciation, recognize effort and results, or solicit feedback and suggestions. You are investing your time in these activities. Are you using that time in a way to maximize the return? How do you know? I find the best source of actionable feedback on this or any other topic on my performance is my teammates.
One of the best pieces of leadership advice I received very early in my career pointed out that when it comes to leading a team, the team’s members could be my greatest allies or greatest enemies — and it would be my behaviors toward them that determined which line they would choose to be in. Life and work are much easier and more enjoyable with a team full of allies.
