One of the most important concepts I have tried to impress upon the thousands of managers, supervisors, and team leaders I have trained and coached over the years is this one:
You have WAY more power and influence than you realize!
Unfortunately, many leaders of organizations have embraced the false notion that the strongest factor in employee engagement is the nature or culture of the organization. Granted, there are many companies today that emphasize the value and importance of their culture in attracting and retaining talent: Meta, Google, and Apple, to name a few of the most well-known. However…
My experience in management consulting has led me to challenge the assumption that corporate culture is the most determining factor with regard to employee engagement, retention, and productivity! It is NOT. Rather…
I have found that the team leader has the most influence when it comes to motivating and engaging employees; managing workers for high performance; and retaining talent over time.
Author and management thinker Marcus Buckingham agrees with me on this!
In his recent book, Nine Lies About Work, he says this: “The good news …for you, the team leader, is that what people care most about at work is within your control.”
Here’s another heartening reality that results from this truth:
You can have a great team, even if the organization you’re in sucks!
I have seen this countless times—a leader with an exceptional team, surrounded by mediocre peers and low-performing teams in an organization that is struggling to achieve consistent productivity in its workforce.
Up Close and Personal
I once took time to interview one of these skilled team leaders in depth. I wanted to understand his experience and the challenging situation within his organization. I asked him, “Did your boss ever hold meetings with you and the other team leaders in your department?” His answer surprised me: “Oh yes,” he replied, “We had regular meetings with all of us team leaders together.” I pressed him for further details: “In these meetings, did your boss ever invite you to share with the other team leaders what you were doing that was producing such great results with your team?” “No,” he said, “Never.” THE GOOD NEWS: That didn’t stop this exceptional leader from continuing to have an awesome team!
This sad reality is common in many, many organizations! So…
What can you do, to have a team culture that empowers, engages, and energizes your people?
My suggestion: Start with this important truth:
Information is the life-blood of an effective team.
If that’s true (and many management experts agree with me on this!) then communication is the cardiac action that is required to circulate that information and make it available to the team! It’s also how your team can share important information with YOU.
Here’s how:
Regular, informal check-ins with each team member will turbo-charge your team!
— Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis
Buckingham explains how simple it is to keep the lines of communication open with employees:
Team leaders can do this on the team level with weekly check-ins with each team member.
…in simple terms it’s a frequent one-on-one conversation about near-term future work between a team leader and a team member.
He also has some suggestions for good questions to ask:
So, each and every week these leaders have a brief check-in with each team member, during which they ask two simple questions:
(1) What are your priorities this week?
(2) How can I help?
This insight is not new! ALMOST TWENTY YEARS AGO, author Cynthia Shapiro gave this advice to leaders in her excellent book, Corporate Confidential:
Be an inspirational and solid foundation for your employees. Walk your department at least once a day the way a good waiter checks on his tables. “How’s it going? Do you have everything you need? Let me know if you need any support on that project, I’d be happy to help.” This will create a caring and supportive relationship with your team.
In other posts, I have shared a host of strategic questions for bosses to use in these one-on-one conversations. If you want to know what to ask your people, start with this series of five key blog posts I published, beginning with this one: https://thebossdoctor.net/2022/5-questions-every-boss-needs-answered-by-their-subordinates-1/
And if you’re hungry for more, check out this additional post: https://thebossdoctor.net/2022/more-great-questions-every-boss-needs-answered-by-their-subordinates/
Buckingham summarizes:
Each check-in, then is a chance to offer a tip, or an idea that can help the team member overcome a real-world obstacle, or a suggestion for how to refine a particular skill. Check-ins can be short—ten to fifteen minutes…
He also echoes Shapiro’s advice with this important principle:
…one of the most important insights shared by the best team leaders: frequency trumps quality.
In his book, Buckingham cites the extensive research Cisco performed, studying employee engagement at the company. They found:
…team members who check in with their leader frequently have an enhanced sense of being able to use their strengths every day, of being recognized for excellent work, and having opportunities to grow.
They concluded:
…any attention [team leaders give their team members] is better than no attention, that frequent attention is better than infrequent attention, and that the type of attention a leader gives matters. When the type of attention a leader gives to his or her team members includes a live discussion, we see the highest levels of team-member engagement and the biggest positive change in team-member engagement over time, irrespective of the conversational skill of the team leader or the quality of the conversation.
I like that last part: irrespective of the conversational skill of the team leader or the quality of the conversation.
That means that “plain vanilla” team leaders—people without a ton of communication skill or gobs of talent—can still have an incredible impact on the work of their people! I LOVE THAT!
If you want to be a better leader—you can! Take advantage of the straightforward advice in this article, and keep your eyes open for future tips RIGHT HERE.
Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,
Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ – helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!
