5 Steps To Improve Employee Engagement Through Leadership Development

You are extra particular about who you hire — smart leaders always are. You look for the right mix of work experience, life experience, professional skills and personality traits that together will translate to an employee who adds value, in terms of both company culture and bottom line.

But guess what: None of those important qualifications will matter if your employees aren’t engaged — you (and your company) won’t benefit from all the positive things they could bring to the job.

Leaders have to find ways to keep their valued employees engaged. How do the best leaders do it? They invest in leadership development coaching, which makes them more decisive, helps them inspire and influence their teams, and drives a more collaborative environment.

Here are five powerful steps you can try, to make immediate improvements and boost engagement on your team.

1. Start with Simple Participation

Photo by Marcos Luiz Photograph on Unsplash

Invite employees to just get involved — I know it sounds obvious. You’d be surprised, though, how common it is for employees to spend months, even years, in positions where they aren’t given chances to participate.

That’s on their leaders. Whether it’s 1-to-1 or in a group setting, it’s easy to create opportunities where you ask employees for their input — for their thoughts, ideas and feedback — and then actively listen to them. (As the acclaimed writer/director Ron Howard says in a recent episode of the hilarious podcast Smartless, “When people begin to trust that I’m actually happy to say yes to their idea, they’re also then comfortable with no.” Have a listen.)

And it pays off. Employees who participate — and who are encouraged to do so by their bosses and leaders — feel more valued, more committed and more confident.

2. Assign Specific Responsibilities

There’s a time and place for setting broad goals that apply to every employee, like committing to your company’s overall mission and values. But when all the goals are broad, and when every employee feels responsible for everything, it’s easy for nothing to get done.

So get specific! Assign each of your employees roles and responsibilities that are detailed. And make sure those responsibilities match the employee’s capabilities and tie directly to reachable goals. (More on that below.)

That’s a sure way to get your teams to stay on task, take ownership of their roles (and pride in how they perform it), and take initiative — i.e., to stay engaged with their job.

3. Delegate Leadership

In many instances, companies have capable and committed employees who know they could rise to the occasion as leaders — but they don’t ask for the chance.

Don’t make them ask. Demonstrate the faith you have in your employees’ abilities by finding leadership roles they can play. Just watch what small successes do for their confidence and engagement.

This will do more than benefit your employees — it’ll help secure your company as a whole. Why? Companies can grow revenues beyond their leadership capabilities, but that growth will ultimately recede if the leadership isn’t developed to cultivate it.

Oh, and you’ll benefit greatly, too. As your employees feel more autonomy, you’ll have less on your plate and less stress — and you’ll relearn a simple, valuable lesson in leadership:

When you’ve prepared your employees well, trusting them to lead will pay off.

4. Set Attainable Goals

Goal setting is an art form I touched on back in January. The biggest trick to it (one that the best leaders take the time to master) is setting employees up to succeed by setting goals that are just attainable.

What does that mean? It means goals that your employees can reach with a little stretch — if they apply themselves, stay focused, work hard and work together.

That will have the effect of keeping your employees engaged with their work and with each other, all throughout the process.

5. Recognize Good Work

Like their bosses, employees want to know that their efforts are appreciated and their performance matters. That’s why a little recognition for a job well done goes an exceptionally long way.

(Tip: Praising an employee in a 1-to-1 setting is good. Praising him/her/them in front of the team or company is better.)

But it doesn’t just have to center on success. You can easily create forums (at the end of team meetings or by company-wide emails) that spotlight and recognize your employees as people and let them share their stories.

Employee engagement is an ongoing task, and investing in leadership development is the very best way to stay on top of it. With the right coach, you can develop new engagement tools and skills, gain new levels of awareness and apply the steps above — to keep your employees their happiest and most bought-in.