Employee Engagement is Fragile: 3 Things You Can Do to Protect It

In the past 12 months we have seen dramatic examples about how leadership and engagement of people are fragile living things. As I write this article Egypt is celebrating the end of the Mubarak authoritative dictatorship after only a few weeks. The mostly peaceful protests were conducted consistently over a three week period by a leaderless group of protestors that represented a relatively small percentage of the total population (approximately 5%).

Just a month or so earlier we saw the authoritarian and corrupt government of Tunisia fall to demonstrations, a bit more explosive, as well. Again, a group of protesters were leaderless yet persistent in their call for ouster of the current regime.

Our own November elections demonstrated a clear message to Barack Obama such that he called the results a “shellacking.” The results were led mostly by a leaderless movement called the Tea Party.

Again and again we see the power of engaged people who can either support a leader or protest against a leader. The people eventually have the power especially when they reach the tipping point and act as a team. It seems the more a leader attempts to control people the more he/she erodes his/her own. Leadership is indeed fragile and engagement, of either employees or citizens, is a critical element for that leadership. Employee engagement in organizations (or communities) is a measure of the quality of leadership.

Employees can be disengaged and damage a business by just barely doing the minimum work expected. Countries can be damaged by citizens revolting against a leader when a tipping point is reached. Employees can either quit then leave or they can quit and stay by working and stay. Citizens have more difficulty leaving a country and so they stay until a tipping point of frustration is reached. Then they protest.

There are three things a leader can do to ensure they manage employee engagement and ensure leadership quality.

Make trust and engagement an ongoing strategic initiative

I often ask the leaders in new clients about their written strategic initiatives. Not once have they ever articulated an initiative for employee engagement. The initiatives always seem to revolve around increasing revenue, profit, customer service, quality etc. All of these are fine but none of them can be optimally achieved without a high level of employee engagement. In fact, ask yourself, which comes first, high revenue growth or employee engagement? Does soaring profits come before employee engagement? What about customer loyalty? I doubt it. Make employee engagement a strategy and make it known.

Measure engagement frequently and include emotionally intelligent observations

Leaders who are disengaged form people create disengagement. Those who are either not at all interested or who are unable to sense trouble will eventually find themselves in trouble.

Make an effort to connect with people frequently and sincerely even if you have to do it virtually. Make an effort. Let them know you are thinking about them. Let them know you understand them.

If you have a large organization (or even a large country) obviously you can’t connect personally with everyone on a frequent basis. What you can do is find those who are the natural leaders and well-connected and make an effort to speak to them. Identify connectors in your organization. Connectors are those people who are well connected with their networks and who are credible with those networks. Communicate with them frequently.

Continuously improve trust with people

There are four key elements of trust. Leaders can, and must, make an effort to continuously improve these if they are to protect the quality of their leadership. Employees (or citizens) need to know the leader has integrity. Demonstrating integrity takes consistent effort. This means make agreements and keep them. Work hard. Admit when you make a mistake. Apologize for any missteps or mistakes. Don’t blame others for mistakes. Take responsibility for solving problems and give away credit once they are solved. People respect and remain loyal to leaders who have integrity.

Look for ways to show concern for people around you. If others hear how you have personally showed concern for some they will assume you also care about them personally as well.

Get things done. Work hard to accomplish goals. Lay out steps to accomplish tasks and projects, make those projects public and then work hard to accomplish them. Show people you are accomplished and competent.

Finally, Set objectives that people can relate to. Set objectives, communicate them, and persuade others about their importance. Let them know the benefits they can achieve when the objectives are reached. Let them know how their hard work toward the objectives will benefit not just themselves but also others. Make the objectives big, bold, and aligned with the best interests of everyone involved. Let people know that your work with benefit everyone and their accomplishment will be a win-win for all.

Leaders must protect and nurture the quality of their leadership. Engagement and leadership are fragile living things. They must be nurtured and protected consistently. People can either support or remove leaders from office.