5 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement, and WHY We Lead Matters

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Why would you want to be a leader?

Today’s newsletter is a bit more focused on leadership. 

Building up engagement in teams to breed opportunities and success. 

Getting clear on our motivations.

And more. 

Whether you are a formal leader of people at work or not, we all need to lead ourselves, and the way we do that influences everyone in our personal and professional lives.

So even if you don’t have an official leadership position, don’t discount leadership. It always matters.

In today’s newsletter:

• How to Level Up Employee Engagement in 5 Steps

• Motivations of Leadership

• Hot jobs
  

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CAREER TIPS

How Engineering Leaders Can Increase Engagement in Their Teams

Engineering leadership extends beyond technical proficiency; it entails cultivating a team that is not only skilled but also deeply engaged. Employee engagement can be an engine for organizational success.

Below, we’ll share five effective strategies for engineering leaders to elevate engagement within their teams, fostering a culture of productivity, loyalty, and innovation.

Before diving into these strategies, it's essential to clarify the concept of "engagement." Employee engagement reflects the degree of involvement, enthusiasm, and commitment individuals harbor toward their work and the organization.

Engaged employees are not merely executing tasks; they care deeply about their contributions, their colleagues, and the collective mission.

Ready to level up your engagement?

1. Give Autonomy

Leaders must empower team members with the freedom to make decisions and act independently. Micromanagement certainly doesn’t encourage engagement.

Rather, effective delegation, coupled with clear goals and commitments, instills a sense of responsibility. Autonomy provides the space for innovation, allowing team members to take ownership of their work.

2. Offer Flexible Career Growth

Recognizing the diversity of aspirations and goals within a team, leaders should adopt a flexible approach to career growth for those they support. Understanding each individual's career aspirations and aligning them with business needs ensures that employees feel supported.

Tailoring growth opportunities to individual preferences helps people feel like the team and organization supports them, thus encouraging more engagement and focus.

3. Encourage Continuous Learning

Everyone loves feeling like they are learning and growing in their knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Leaders should actively encourage continuous learning by providing training, mentoring, coaching, and other learning opportunities.

An environment that values and supports ongoing learning fosters a sense of progression, preventing stagnation and enhancing engagement.

4. Have Productive Challenges

Engagement flourishes in an environment that presents productive challenges, because these challenges give people an opportunity to rise to the occasion. Leaders should craft tasks and initiatives that are both demanding and achievable, prompting team members to stretch their abilities.

Aligning challenges with individual skill development and personal goals ensures that employees are not just working but growing and learning, as we talked about previously.

5. Repeat the Mission Often

Reminding the team of the mission and purpose behind their work is crucial. They want to feel like what they do matters. Leaders must consistently articulate and reinforce the organization's vision, values, and goals.

Connecting individual tasks to the broader mission instills a sense of purpose, making work more meaningful. Regularly revisiting the mission inspires a shared commitment.

The desire to increase engagement within engineering teams demands intentional leadership strategies. Giving autonomy, offering flexible career growth, encouraging continuous learning, having productive challenges, and aligning with the organizational mission collectively build a culture of heightened engagement.

By adopting these strategies, engineering leaders not only cultivate a more engaged team but also pave the way for sustained success.

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📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATION

The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities by Patrick Lencioni

New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni has written a dozen books that focus on how leaders can build teams and lead organizations. In The Motive, he shifts his attention toward helping them understand the importance of why they’re leading in the first place.  

In what may be his edgiest page-turner to date, Lencioni thrusts his readers into a day-long conversation between rival CEOs. Shay Davis is the CEO of Golden Gate Alarm, who, after just a year in his role, is beginning to worry about his job and is desperate to figure out how to turn things around.

With nowhere else to turn, Shay receives some hard-to-swallow advice from the most unlikely and unwanted source―Liam Alcott, CEO of a more successful security company and his most hated opponent.

Lencioni uses unexpected plot twists and crisp dialogue to take us on a journey that culminates in a resolution that is as unexpected as it is enlightening. As he does in his other books, he then provides a straightforward summary of the lessons from the fable, combining a clear explanation of his theory with practical advice to help executives examine their true motivation for leading.

In addition to provoking readers to honestly assess themselves, Lencioni presents action steps for changing their approach in five key areas. In doing so, he helps leaders avoid the pitfalls that stifle their organizations and even hurt the people they are meant to serve.