Leadership engagement – a must-have for an engaged workforce

Employee engagement is a hot topic these days. I talk about it a lot. In an age of Great Resignations, quiet quitting, and virtual/hybrid work environments, maintaining an engaged workforce has become more challenging than ever before. If you’re reading this blog, we’re probably on the same page – you and I both know that while engagement is difficult, it’s one of the best things that you can invest your time and resources in. It literally makes or breaks your ability to achieve the goals you’ve set out for yourself.

Now, I’ve gone through just about everything there is to talk about when it comes to engagement, but here’s one that recently came to my mind – leadership engagement! That’s right, leadership engagement. As I looked back on my experiences with clients and my own company over the years, I’ve come to understand that whether or not your leaders are engaged makes a massive difference in overall engagement levels within your company.

So, what does an engaged leader look like? An article from Gallup provides some useful insights.

An engaged leader understands their roles and responsibilities
Org charts are important! It’s something we have taught here at Dignify for a long time. From the bottom to the top, every single person within your organization is going to be more engaged if they understand how their roles connect to the company’s objectives and overall success. This is critically important for leaders, who are responsible for mobilizing dozens, hundreds, or maybe even thousands of people in their own roles. Double check that your leadership team know their roles, especially as the company evolves and grows over time.

An engaged leader understands their strengths and synergizes with their team
An engaged leader will understand where their strengths lie and how they can use them to amplify the strengths of their leadership team and the people in their respective departments. A system like Dignify makes this easy. Each person who signs up for Dignify receives a Snapshot, which features their motivations, nature, communication style, dos and don’ts, and much more. The Snapshot provides a clear picture to help you and the people around you understand and embrace you as a person, and all of the strengths that you carry. Meanwhile, you’re equipped to do the same for others using the Check-In tool, where you can understand others and how you can support their strengths with your own. Give it a shot! The results will speak for themselves.

An engaged leader manages perceptions
This one is my own addition. I think it’s important to understand, because it isn’t often brought up. As a leader, you can be the most invested, caring, gung-ho person about your work of all time, but if others don’t perceive you that way, you won’t get the intended outcomes of your high engagement.
Look at it this way. Leader A goes out of their way to have conversations with his team on a routine basis. They leave their office door open for people to come in and have a chat or request help, and people can see that they are working at their desk. They communicate transparently with their team, showing their team what they have accomplished and highlighting wins from their team on, let’s say a monthly basis.

And then you have Leader B. Leader B is locked in. Coming into the office, they close their door, and from the minute they are in the office to the minute they leave, it’s nothing but work, work, work. They are laser focused on propelling their team to their objectives and will stop at nothing to bring success to their team. They often work after hours or go the extra mile to take up work and ease a process along.
We could say that both of these leaders are equally engaged – they care deeply about the mission of their company, the objectives they need to achieve, and the people under their care. But from the employee perspective, who appears more engaged. It’s Leader A. Leader A makes it easy to see, while Leader B makes it difficult. Both of these leaders have great qualities and a recipe for success, but Leader A will likely have a more engaged team around them as a result of their efforts.

Final thoughts
Leadership engagement is just as important as employee engagement when it comes to building a successful and motivated team. If your leaders are truly engaged, knowing their roles, playing to their strengths, and making their commitment visible, they’ll set the tone for everyone else. It’s not just about what’s happening behind the scenes; it’s about showing up in a way that your team can see and feel. So, if you want to boost engagement across the board, don’t forget to focus on your leaders too. Get them engaged, and you’ll see that energy ripple throughout the whole company.

ACTION PLAN: Engage your leaders to engage your people. Start with Dignify today!

JOE KIEDINGER