Tips for Boosting Manager Engagement and Productivity

Only 31% of employees are enthusiastic about their work. As a middle manager, you play a pivotal role in boosting your team's engagement and enthusiasm. Here's how you can inspire and empower your team: 🌟 Trust & Empower: Involve your team in decision-making processes whenever possible. This fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility, motivating them to take initiative. 🌟 Celebrate Feedback: Encourage a culture of frequent and constructive feedback. It promotes continuous learning and growth, essential for your team's development. 🌟 Connect 'Why' to Vision: Share the company's vision and explain how your team's contributions matter. This sense of purpose can be a powerful motivator. 🌟 Offer Development: Advocate for training and development opportunities for your team. It signals your commitment to their growth and increases their loyalty. 🌟 Recognize & Praise: Acknowledge achievements, both big and small. A simple 'thank you' can go a long way in boosting morale and motivation. 🌟 Promote Diversity: Embrace diverse perspectives within your team. It enriches the work environment, prompts healthy debate, and drives innovation. 🌟 Encourage Collaboration: Foster teamwork on projects. It builds a sense of community and belonging while accelerating learning. 🌟 Challenge Comfort Zones: Push your team members to expand their skills and explore what they think is possible. It promotes growth and enthusiasm. 🌟 Cultivate Inclusivity: Ensure all voices are heard during discussions and meetings. Create space for quieter team members to speak up. Be the leader who serves, empowers, and inspires. And watch your team's engagement skyrocket!

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗢𝗻𝗲-𝗼𝗻-𝗢𝗻𝗲𝘀? . . . 💫When you become a manager or leader, your responsibility shifts. Your role isn’t to maximize the potential for the work; it’s to maximize the potential of those around you.   💫Having one-on-one meetings is an excellent chance to have routine discussions about professional growth, and if conducted effectively, these regular check-ins can increase engagement, accomplishments, and employee retention. Additionally, one-on-ones serve as the basis for top-performing teams.   🚩Yet so few leaders fulfill this core responsibility, and no one should consider themselves a leader if they can’t commit time and effort to improve the abilities of their team members.   👉Recommendations for effective one-on-ones:   ✅Prepare Well: Go over previous notes or, if first time, request they fill out a survey with open-ended questions, complete an online tool to identify their strengths, or use other templates to gain some insight before the meeting.   ✅Proper Schedule: Ensure they have proper time to prepare and the meeting doesn’t conflict with a hectic or stressful time for them.   ✅Use Open Space: Sometimes, being away from the workplace can lighten the mood and improve the conversation.   ✅Set the Agenda Beforehand: Facilitate the conversation to stay on focus.   ✅Let the Team Member Lead: Don’t deliver a monologue; this approach isn’t very effective. Instead, let team members set the tone. Remember, it’s only about them!   ✅Encourage Self-Awareness: Help them become more introspective by asking the right questions.   ✅Be Open-Minded: Their view of their future may differ from what you think is best for them. Don’t let your experiences and biases overtake their passions and ambitions.   ✅Pay Attention to Their Well-Being: Team member well-being may not be tended to, which can impact their ability to consider signing up for a mentorship program or training opportunity.   ✅Build Trust: Managers must recognize their limitations and provide accurate information to build trust and connection with team members and create a supportive work environment.   ✅Be an Active Listener: Pay attention, ask questions, summarize, and ensure no distractions!   ✅Take Notes: Keeps track of the conversation for revisiting progress in the next session. But don’t violate the previous point! Write notes when appropriate or after the meeting so as not to distract.   ✅Revisit Previous Goals: Did the team member pursue mentorship or certification? How are you supporting?   ✅End on a Positive Note: Motivate them at the end of every meeting and pave the way for a positive working environment!   🔥It requires dedication and focus to initiate discussions on team member growth during one-on-one meetings. However, these personalized discussions are invaluable for creating customized learning and development plans that can significantly enhance and nurture talent!

This got me thinking. Only 31% of employees are enthusiastic about and energized by their work. "Involving" your people will not only help them learn, but also skyrocket their enthusiasm and energy. Here's my playbook for doing it: 👉🏻Trust & Empower: Involve your team in decision-making processes and push decisions to them when possible. This will foster a sense of ownership and responsibility. 👉🏻Celebrate Feedback: Create an environment where feedback is frequent and constructive. It encourages continuous learning and growth. 👉🏻Connect 'Why' to Vision: Sharing a compelling vision to motivate team members and clearly explain why their contributions matter. 👉🏻Offer Development: Signal your commitment to personal growth with training and development opportunities. It sparks motivation and increases loyalty. 👉🏻Recognize & Praise: Acknowledge achievements and make saying 'thank you' your default. A little recognition goes a long way to boost morale and motivation. 👉🏻Promote Diversity: Embrace diverse perspectives and backgrounds to enrich the work environment, prompt healthy debate, and drive innovation. 👉🏻Encourage Collaboration: Encourage teamwork on projects. This builds a sense of community and belonging while also accelerating learning. 👉🏻Challenge Comfort Zones: Push and encourage team members to expand their skills and what they think is possible. It promotes growth and enthusiasm. 👉🏻Cultivate Inclusivity: Ensure all voices are heard. For example, make sure extroverts don't steal the show and create the space needed for quieter team members to speak. Be the leader that serves, empowers and inspires. And you'll skyrocket the engagement of your team! --- ♻️Find this valuable? Share it with your network. Follow me, Shagun Agarwal, for more insightful content.

I am in Milwaukee this week at a global pharmaceutical company leading a discussion on 6 Critical Practices for Managers. The main message is the idea that being a good leader means you are not just focused on you but you are now focused on getting results through the people you lead. One practice that we discussed was how to tell if your team is engaged or not. ☀️A highly engaged member brings their best to their job. They bring positive energy, creativity, and make the extra effort. 🌧️A member who is not engaged can feel like a drag on the team. They are checked out, indifferent, and do the bare minimum. As a leader here is how to increase team member engagement: - Hold regular 1-1 meetings - Have an agenda that includes their questions, challenges, and goals - Don’t just talk about work. Talk about them - Coach them to solve their own problems - Seek their input - Give them autonomy, trust, and support - Show them a path to growth Now remember a time when you felt highly engaged. What did your leader do well to create that high level of engagement? What are some of your best practices to increase engagement? #leadership #engagement #coaching

Leadership Tip #123:  Emotionally Intelligent Leaders make decisions with people, not for them Have you noticed when a manager does not welcome suggestions 🤐, their reporting people take no initiative and do exactly what they are told – no more, no less. This unfortunate reality occurs because a manager has a need to control with an iron fist or they are busy and overwhelmed.  Busy, busy managers compound the problem when they let people take the easy road by asking the boss what to do.  Employees aren’t learning to think for themselves and inadvertently hijacking your time. Try this YET TO FAIL technique to encourage engaged decision-making and get time ⌚ back in your day: When someone comes to you for advice on how to handle a difficult situation (e.g. an unexpected delay):  1. Do not provide an immediate answer – no matter how busy you are 2. Ask them “What do you think should be done?” 🤔 They will stumble thinking it is a trick… 😊 Say, “I would like to know your opinion”. 3. LISTEN to their suggestion 4. ASK guiding questions so they are the one who solves the problem During your brief conversation, you will see them stand a little straighter. They realize you believe their opinion is important and they are capable of resolving problems.  After a few practices with you – they will. AND, you will see bottom line business results.   Gallup research revealed that organizations that implemented programs to better engage employees in workplace decisions realized a 22% INCREASE in employee retention.  Your schedule will open up even more since you will save time interviewing, onboarding, and training. I am creating a list – please help.  What other YET TO FAIL techniques can you offer managers to engage team members in the decision-making process?  #Leadership #emotionalintelligence #projectmanager #teambuilding