Are you ready to more fully engage members of your team in 2019? How do you do it?
According to a 2018 Gallup poll, only 34 percent of U.S. employees were engaged in their jobs. While that is an improvement over previous years, it still means that a majority of workers fall into the “not engaged” (53 percent) or “actively disengaged” (13 percent) categories. Organizations have taken note and are seeking a more engaged and to use a collaborative approach with employees.
What results will you get with an ‘engaged’ team? A happier workforce; through collaboration, and engaging team members, it encourages all individuals to share best practices readily, and adds to the important cultural basis of the organization. This includes understanding the organization’s Vision, Mission, and Values, as well as Goals for the year and beyond. It also helps the team member to have a sense of belonging.
Through coloration and engagement, productivity increases, costs are lowered and employees have a sense that the organization is investing in the individual.
Here are 3 ways to engage and collaborate with team members:
Communicate
- Share ideas with anyone who will listen.
- Challenge yourself and others to communicate a thought; it forces you / others to clarify your thinking, in order for another person to understand.
- By opening up an idea for feedback, individuals and you will receive additional ideas from your colleagues.
- Polling employees for their opinions in real time can reveal what they think about projects and strategic plans; kick off productive discussions
- The ‘TurningPoint’ organization, schedules live real time polling sessions to invite company-wide feedback without the need for annual employee feedback surveys.
Visualize
- Visuals are a great facilitator to aid strategic thinking and planning, and more effective than words alone.
Acknowledge
- Give credit when your team mate contributes a good idea, hard work or even constructive feedback.
- Engagement and collaboration works best when team members feel appreciated and valued.
- Each participant is part of the team for a reason as they are competent in their specialty.
- Soliciting feedback and generating ideas, helps to convey to individuals that they truly have a voice in the organization and that their contributions are valued and influential.