It is not uncommon in today’s business culture to find organizations where someone is in charge of engagement as though you could assign it or delegate it. You cannot create a culture of engagement through an organizational chart. Where you see this, you know senior leadership doesn’t understand what is required to create a culture where all employees are motivated to do their best every day.
They should instead focus on creating positive relationships and building positive reinforcement into the workplace, from the top down. Employees, who are encouraged, encourage others more often. When it starts at the top, it multiplies as it flows to the front line. Therefore, if it doesn’t occur at the top, it limits what will occur in the rest of the organization. All leaders want an engaged workforce, and many leaders think they have one when they don’t. So how do you know where your employees stand on engagement? Here are five sure-tell ways of knowing:
• They willingly lend a hand to co-workers, even when they aren’t asked.
• They aren’t clock watchers; they often show up early or even stay late.
• They openly offer ideas and solutions for improvements.
• They acknowledge the accomplishments of others and are pleased with their success.
• 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 reliable checklist 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 tactical capacity to develop it and sustain it. Introducing the skill of Positive Presence to your workforce is the first step to an engaged and collaborative work environment. It will get you off the engagement roller coaster and move you on to higher levels of productivity and organizational performance.
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.