Leaders: Employee Engagement Is Not Rocket Science

There are many ways to motivate today’s workforce. 

Employee engagement is not rocket science. But it does require placing an organization-wide focus on leading people to achieve results over an emphasis on getting things done and improving productivity ratios.

Leaders who place a great deal of emphasis on the professional development of their team members are likely to be rewarded with increased employee engagement, as well as more knowledgeable and productive workers.

Some of the best ways to motivate today’s workforce are:

• Eliminate long-standing stupid rules, procedures, and processes no longer appropriate for today’s workforce.
• Be flexible in how you lead individuals and team members.
• Provide on-going and timely feedback to all team members.
• Never act like you are superior or better than your team members simply because you are the boss or the designated leader.

Another great way to motivate employee engagement is to provide every team member with a clear line of sight to their role and importance on a task or project. When a leader’s communication provides clarity and understanding, and the leader engages in a dialogue that openly discusses the concerns and questions of other team members, then motivation and buy-in are more likely to occur.

A clear line of sight shows team members how they are contributing to the team or business unit, and how the team or business unit is contributing to the success of the organization. That, combined with some autonomy on how they contribute, goes a long way to increasing employee engagement. After all, no one wants to be micromanaged by their leader. And no leader who wants to increase employee engagement within his or her team will make the mistake of being a micromanager.

This article is excerpted from my book Great Leadership Words of Wisdom, which is available on Amazon in both paperback ($13.88) and Kindle ($3.88) formats and has over 1000 quotes on leadership from global business leaders, statesmen, athletes, coaches, sages, and philosophers.