All leaders we must realize that for people to truly follow your lead, they first must believe that you, as their leader, have their best interests at heart. This belief is grounded in a positive emotional connection between the leader and the followers. This connection is created in the daily experience of the leader’s behavior and mindset. This connection is sustained in the consistent daily experience of matching the leader’s words to the leader’s behavior. It is in this positive connection that engaged employees have a sense of ownership and personal connection to their work that results in higher levels of productivity and organizational performance.
So how do you know where your employees stand on engagement? Here are five sure-tell ways of knowing.
1. They willingly lend a hand to coworkers, even when they aren’t asked.
2. They aren’t clock watchers; they often show up early or even stay late.
3. They openly offer ideas and solutions for improvements.
4. They acknowledge the accomplishments of others and are pleased with their success.
5. They quickly volunteer to lead or assist in implementing initiatives outside their immediate work area.
While these five indicators are not all inclusive of engagement indicators, they do constitute a quick-test for organizations to evaluate their efforts to create an engaged workforce. You cannot change what you do not measure and you cannot measure what you do not know. It is important that you evaluate your organization for engagement and create a systematic, programmatic methodology to develop it and sustain it.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.