Leaders, Best 4 Steps to Engage Employees’ Initiative

Leaders, employee engagement doesn’t have to be complicated, burdensome, time consuming, or a wishy-washy nondescript idea of questionable value. It is the tangible steps that unlock both the employees’ passion and know-how to accomplish any business goal.

Employee engagement is a pro-active must to lead the organization to be ready for any challenge.
It is the difference between surviving today and thriving forever. You are simply giving each employee a key to ignite the organization’s success.

Leaders, Best 4 Steps to Employee Engagement

Engage to achieve the best with these 4 steps:



#1 Better yourself.

    Proactive success comes from continuous learning and improvement. It builds readiness. Preaching this doesn’t produce it. Doing it yourself does.

    Show them how you are constantly learning to improve your leadership. Communicate your mistakes and correction. Most importantly, let them experience the benefits of your people-skills’ improvements through your interaction with them.

    Learn about different personality types and use this knowledge with them. Understand how diverse people learn and inspire them accordingly. Show them how diversity is the wheel of progress.

    It is in this growth that you are likely to spark employee’s commitment to excellence. People soar when you honor their potential, respect their unique ability, and encourage their growth.

#2 Expect great things.

    Stated plainly, don’t dumb down the expectations out of a misguided desire to keep employees safe. Too much doting care can paralyze and keep them from showing initiative. People rise to the level of achievable, reasonable, high expectations.

    No dream? No need to try. Punishment for making mistakes? Too risky to try. Conversely, learning and great expectations cultivate initiative and employee engagement.

    Likewise, do not tolerate and coddle those who will not learn. Chronic complainers, procrastinators, bullies, and high change resistors sap the energy of a team and neutralize your best efforts no matter how hard you try to counteract them. Set them free to find a culture where they can coast.

    “You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.” ~Navajo Proverb

    Focus on those who learn and grow.

#3 Show your appreciation for their growth.

    Kudos, correction, and coaching keep the momentum of employee engagement going. It tells them your commitment to a them individually, to the team, and to the organization’s goals is the real thing. It builds their respect of you and trust in you.

    Warning: Overlook the kudos and their passion wanes. Shy away from correction and you facilitate their crash. Withhold coaching and they stagnate.

#4 Train them in service and teamwork.

    Service and teamwork are not inborn skills. People come to work as individuals with the initial goal of earning a living. When you shine the spotlight on service and teamwork, you awaken their potential ability to engage with each other.

    To develop the skills of teamwork ability, employees must have training in it as with any occupational skill. Let them learn and discover the art of respectful disagreement to engage in creative pursuits for the organization’s success. Even highly motivated individuals who naturally show initiative need training on how to work with others. When you train on teamwork you are networking your inspiration and multiplying your employee engagement efforts.



People working together are not a team. People who grow and change to achieve a shared success are a team and an unstoppable one at that!

Consider those that have defied the odds and surprised with unforeseen results. Strangers that join in heroic actions, sports teams that have snatched victory from the favorite, voices that have unified against oppression and brought positive change — worked from passion and commitment that propelled skills into action.

There is little that can block a can-do heart and a know-how mind. Create a culture of ingenuity, initiative, and inter-dependence and you will see your organization’s performance go from everyday existence to sustainable excellence.

What other steps would you add to this list to engage employees initiative, ingenuity, and inter-dependence?

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

Related Post:
Engage Employees Through Entrepreneurial Spirit
12 Worthy Kudos That Spark Employee Engagement

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.


Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

8 Responses to “Leaders, Best 4 Steps to Engage Employees’ Initiative”

  1. Khalid says:

    Hi Kate,

    Allow me to add LISTENING to your list

    Practicing emotional intelligence with the team is a must and in particular listening dissolves hidden conflicts and purify hearts.

    You may not like what you will hear as a leader but you should show compassion to feelings expressed by the team members.

    I have a close colleague at work who resigned recently because my boss didn’t LISTEN to his complaints about work and his expression of worries about how things go in my department. Management didn’t like his eagerness to change and considered his style as pushy! We lost a great caliper because of lack of listening of our management!

    Great post as usual Kate 😉 keep on SHINING

    Regards,
    Khalid

    • Kate Nasser says:

      Hi Khalid,
      Listening and emotional intelligence is so important and I thank you for adding those.

      The other thing that you mentioned == leader’s resistance to employees’ ideas for change — is a true morale killer. Not all changes will happen yet an engaging leader can explain what is and isn’t feasible and therein secures the respect for employees’ ideas.

      So pleased you added this issue to the list!

      Thanks as always for how you bring practical examples to all these posts.

      Warmest thanks,
      Kate

KateNasser on Facebook KateNasser Blog KateNasser on Twitter KateNasser on LinkedIn KateNasser on Pinterest