6 Essential Factors for Leaders to Build an Engaged, Thriving Team
A recent Gallup article stated that surveys show employee engagement has decreased to 32% in 2022, continuing a downward trajectory for the last few years. Worse, the survey showed that 18% of employees are actively disengaged. In a highly challenging environment, those levels of engagement will not help businesses fully rebound and find sustained success. Low engagement leads to turn over. Turnover will lead to added expenses (recruiting, hiring, training), lower productivity, and ultimately higher labor costs as you have to pay to bring in talent instead of growing your own. Creating a team of engaged members then can truly be a differentiator for any business, and at any level within the business.
The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged workers in the U.S. is 1.8-to-1, down from 2.1-to-1 in 2021 and 2.6-to-1 in 2020. This is the lowest ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees in the U.S. since 2013, almost a decade earlier. The record high is a ratio of 2.7-to-1 recorded in 2019. 1
How can you help create an environment that creates employee engagement? Here are some good starting points. No list will ever capture it all, and engagement is an ongoing, evolutionary process. But we all need a starting point, or even a re-starting point. Regardless of your current situation, you can always reframe and start with a clean slate. It is about consistency, predictability, and authenticity in creating an engaged team.
1. Set the positive example
It all starts (and ends) with the example the leader sets. Period. Be the outcomes you want to see and have from the rest of your team. I start with this one because without this starting point, the rest of the items on the list will either not matter or have limited impact at best. Engagement starts with the leader. There is a great quote from the movie, Remember the Titans, when after one of the players is challenged on something, he says to the captain, “attitude reflects leadership.” 100% true.
2. Foster collaboration
People want to feel a part of something bigger than just themselves. Working together and seeing how they can contribute in multiple ways will build engagement with the team and the company as a whole. At a certain level, we are all individual contributors, we have our role to play, responsibilities to deliver on, results to product. But we are all a part of something bigger as well. And seeing how our individual contributions can connect to the bigger picture supports purpose. Creating an environment where people work together, willingly and eagerly, is a collaboration culture. It also represents an engaged team.
3. Empower others
If everyone only worked from a preset checklist, life would be pretty boring. We’ve all seen movies or videos, or gifs, of someone just doing the same thing over and over. Punch the time clock, check the boxes, punch out, go home, repeat the next day. This is not a recipe for an engaged team. I am not even sure it will be a productive team. Give your team the ability to make decisions on their own. It won’t be everything, but there are always small contributions and decisions that any team member can make, especially when it comes to how they serve customers. Empower everyone to say yes to customers. Empower everyone to ask questions and challenge current processes. At worse, you have the opportunity to teach and educate on the reason behind the processes. And on the best side, you will encourage new ideas, different thinking, and a team that is connected to what is going on.
4. Invest in development
Just like I mentioned above, people want to feel like they are doing something that contributes. They also want to know they are getting better along the way and will have opportunities to do more. Your role is to help them get there. Development can come in many forms. It can be as simple as exposing them to different people to see new ideas and styles of leading. It can be formal training courses. It can be dedicated time to talk about what they want to do and how you see them getting there. Time is the real contribution you offer here. Both your time to support them, and the time they need to do the activities that will help them grow. That investment will pay off in many engaging ways.
5. Seek feedback. Act on it.
Everyone has an opinion. Trust me. We may not always want to hear it, but more often than not, getting all feedback is better than getting none. It is a case of better out than in. If people feel as though they do not have an outlet for their feelings, thoughts, ideas, or concerns, it will fester and likely turn to negative energy. That will erode engagement immediately in any environment. Ensure you are making yourself available for feedback and ideas. Then engage with it. The team will need to see you taking that feedback and acting on it. That does not always mean you need to do exactly what people suggest, but addressing it to ensure they know they have been heard is the most important element of feedback. Even willing participants will stop sharing thoughts if they feel as though it is going into a black hole.
6. Recognition and gratitude
There is a common theme running through each of these: feeling connected to something bigger and knowing you are contributing to it. Recognizing efforts and results reinforces that their work is indeed making a difference. Give credit where and when it is warranted. Then add in how it makes you feel. That is the gratitude portion of recognition. Saying, “Great Job Sam, that is excellent work.” is nice recognition. Saying, “Sam, this is excellent work. I really appreciate the impact you have made for the team. I am proud of what you have accomplished,” connects on multiple levels. Take your recognition to the next level to build engagement to the next level as well.
Creating an engaged team seems like it should be easy. It takes continual effort and hard work to establish it and maintain it. Even small misses can set back people’s desire to fully dedicate themselves to the cause. As the leader, you set the tone for the engagement of the team. The survey numbers mentioned at the start of this article are alarming. It may seem like these Gallup surveys always show low engagement scores, but I think they reflect the real challenge and complexity of creating what people feel is a truly great environment to work in. 32% are engaged. 18% are actively disengaged. The opportunity lies in the 50% of people that fall between those extremes. Moving the middle will ultimately pull the bottom up. Better engagement will create a culture that begins to eliminate anyone not fully engaged. To reiterate my point above — regardless of your current situation, you can always reframe and start with a clean slate. It is about consistency, predictability, and authenticity in creating an engaged team.
What ideas will you put into action to help build engagement with your team?
Join other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills. JOIN NOW!
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––