The Leader's Role in Building Trust and Engagement
During these uncertain and challenging times, organizations of all types are asking the same questions:
- How can we make sure everyone understands and stays focused on contributing to our business strategy?
- How do we help our employees manage the constant turmoil and change?
- How do we engage people's hearts and minds so that they help us improve the bottom line?
Many of the answers to these questions lie in the effectiveness of an organization's leadership and management team, and their ability to communicate with and effectively engage the entire workforce.
Research indicates that the top two drivers of employee engagement are the actions of senior leaders and the actions of supervisors1. Therefore, it is critical that leaders are aligned and walking the talk for employees to be committed and engaged in the organization's success.
The Leader's Role
So what does the leader's role in employee engagement look like? At Bridge Consulting, we have developed a model, based on research and best practices, to help educate leaders on what they need to do to effectively engage their employees. Several key areas represented in this model are outlined below.
Aligned Business Strategy and Consistent Focus
Like a good orchestra, an effective leadership team is "in concert" in its messages to employees. Consistent, simple and repeated messaging about the business and its top priorities helps build trust between employees and leadership because it visibly demonstrates focus and prioritization. It also aligns everyone in the organization behind common goals, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will be achieved, even under less-than-ideal circumstances.
For example, we worked with a manufacturing organization that was going to be closing two plants and needed to retain their employees and keep them engaged and focused on the business during an 18-month transition. We worked with executive leaders to gain their alignment around the messaging for the change, conducted manager workshops to provide them with support for communicating the change, and then prepared managers to facilitate teambuilding sessions with their employees. The two plants had the highest productivity of any of the company's sites during the 18 months, and they retained most of their employees throughout this period.
Line of Sight
Research shows that the greatest driver of employee effort is a clear connection between the employee's job and the organizational strategy. 2 Leaders should ask themselves, "How does each employee on my team make a difference in our organization's success?" and then make that connection visible to employees.
One way to do this is through the power of storytelling. Communicating facts can be a valuable method of conveying information and influencing individuals and groups, but to truly motivate and connect with people at a gut level, storytelling is a powerful tool. Storytelling affects the way people think, worry wonder and dream. It also helps show the storyteller's "human" side, which is another reason that storytelling is so compelling for today's leaders.
An example of this in action is a financial services organization we worked with, which determined that it was critical to its culture to build storytelling as a key competency for leaders. To support this, the company collected stories from all over the organization, put them into a "story bank" and then circulated them through the organization at the appropriate time. In addition, we conducted workshops to build top leaders' storytelling skills and prepare them to tell more stories to their employees. The result was the creation of a "storytelling culture" that truly inspired employees.
Recognition and Active Listening
Effective leaders understand that recognizing their employees' efforts and celebrating wins, even during difficult times, is a powerful motivator. Effective recognition does not need to be governed by an expensive program. In fact, one of the most powerful techniques leaders can use is simply saying "thank you."
In today's challenging economic climate, two-way communication has actually become even more important, as employees want the opportunity to truly dialogue with their leaders about what's happening externally and how it is impacting the business. There are many formal and informal ways leaders can ensure they are hearing and addressing their employees' questions, thoughts and concerns. They can host small group meetings, lunches or roundtables, hold teleconferences with small groups, conduct daily team "huddles," or simply walk around and talk to people. The important thing is that they listen.
Walk the Talk
The actions of all leaders have never been under so much scrutiny, and more than ever, employees will look to leaders' actions, more than their words, to assess whether they trust them. Therefore, it is critical that leaders' actions are aligned with today's business reality. Leaders can ask themselves simple questions, such as, "Where do I eat lunch?", "Who do I talk to in the elevators and hallways?" and "How do I respond when people approach me informally?" to help them gauge whether they are demonstrating the culture and values they want to help create.
In summary, when working with leaders on their role in employee engagement, keep the following tips in mind:
- Keep the messaging simple and repeatable
- Establish a line of sight—take the messaging right down to how each person makes a difference
- Make leaders human—storytelling is a great way to help accomplish this
- Go beyond Q&A—create a dialogue
- Model the culture you want to create
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