Ever do an online search on employee engagement? I have and you get 2.4+M hits on Bing; 10.2 M on Google. Move that search to employee attrition and the hits drop drastically – .24M on Bing and 1.38M on Google. Makes us all think of that old line that people do not leave companies, but leave their managers. There is a ton written on employee engagement but a significantly less amount on attrition.
The simplest answer to keeping and having your employees engaged probably centers on the manager. As a manager, I was asked time and time again, “why do you people stay working for you?” Give people a great place to work, one that gives the employee meaningful stuff to work on and reward their efforts all would be good. Well, that is partly true. One of my employees told me that they chose to work for me, because I was not afraid to listen to and act on feedback from my team. That was why he and others were happy to work on my teams.
What does it take to change as a manager? These 3 questions should help!
- Do I recognize the need to change? You need an accurate system to collect feedback.
- Do I want to change? The toughest part. Getting information that you need to change something is not very motivating to change.
- Do I have a desire to make the effort?” It takes deep commitment to create and sustain change.
I have found that if you really want to do your best work as the manager – well, you probably should be listening and watching your team in action. This gives you the information of everything you need to know. Know what they are strong at! Know what they are weak at? They also can share what you are strong and weak at! If you really want that team to be engaged and performing well – then you owe it to yourself and the team to change as well!
Image via – Copyright: sergey02 / 123RF Stock Photo
Be First to Comment