People Leadership: Keeping Your Team Engaged

Are you successful as a leader at keeping your team members engaged? Below are five tips to help with this.

(1) Stay connected! Team leads are often bombarded with metrics and other administrative duties that are necessary in running the day to day operations smoothly. However, it pays to make yourself available. NO ONE likes a leader who directs from behind closed doors. To really engage your team, you need to be touchable. Check in on their progress frequently.

(2) Delegate! Show that you trust them to do their jobs well. If you hold back, possibly for fear of failure, and deny the team ownership of processes and tasks you end up robbing them of the experiences - both good and bad - that connect them to the purpose of their work.

(3) Effective and clear communication is a must. Without clear, succinct communication, your team will often be left feeling confused and disconnected.

(4) Know your team! Leaders should know the talents and needs of each employee. Learn their likes and dislikes. The better you know them, the better fitting your approach will be when opportunities for engagement arise.

(5) Focus on their strengths! Building employees’ strengths is far more effective than trying to improve weaknesses, and it boosts engagement.