3 Strategies to Engage Teams
Mar 31, 2024
Is “What have you done for me lately?” the employee attitude du jour where you work?
And by “lately,” do they mean very recently? As in today?
Team engagement—from relationships to results—is a key to your growing people and profits with a positive work culture.
How do you strategically engage your teams?
Here are 3 Strategies to Engage Teams for a more sustainable, positive work culture:
Initiate
Your co-workers are inundated daily by distractions. Some of it is part and parcel of the 24/7, always-on culture today. There are distractions from family and friends. There are interruptions they didn’t ask for or anticipate. It seems like there’s always something on fire and if there’s not, somebody just struck a match somewhere.
Initiating contact with your team members helps you rise above their distractions, focus them, and redefine work. They smile when you pop up or in. You’re quickly recognized and welcomed. You maintain your top of mind position as a part of their home team. You are someone whom they trust to show up.
By initiating, you give them a reason to remember you see them and moved toward them. Initiation creates a loyalty only you can foster.
Interest
Since you’re initiating, your team members remember you see them, but the “lately” factor puts a sense of urgency to the relationship.
Of course, team members benefit from seeing and being seen by you as often as appropriate. Ask specific questions that build on your current relationship, e.g., “What do you enjoy about your work?” Interest team members by building on the current equity of exchange with something that answers the “lately” question.
Also, establish a regular cadence to your initiating contacts. Insure the frequency is often enough to offer enough interest to be authentic. That’s weekly for some and monthly for others.
Any frequency beyond a month and it’s considered infrequent. That leaves the “lately” dynamic unaddressed. Such inattention fosters a relational gap that disengages employees.
Express your interest often enough be “lately.”
Engage
Engage your co-workers in three primary ways and strategically drive productivity:
First, ask questions. These can range from more personally-oriented, e.g., “How’s that new grandbaby?” to “What’s working well for you these days?” Their favorite subject is always “me.”
Second, listen and offer assistance. How will that new grandparent help meet the challenge of rising tuition costs? Perhaps there’s a company 529 savings plan. How have IT changes affected their work? Connect IT support with them, preparing the support person with a description of the challenges.
Third, listen and empathize. He may just want to share stories and pictures of the new grandbaby. She may just need to express the difficulty of learning an unfamiliar and new software.
All three of these primary ways engage team members in significant, meaningful ways. None of them are rocket science. They just require intentionality and action.
Engage your team members as you initiate contact with them in interesting ways so you grow people and profits as you Work Positive.
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