Email: How can we increase team engagement? (US)
A few simple thoughts from my own work experiences. What exactly is team engagement? How involved people are at work, how enthusiastic they are? A set of measurable attitudes & attributes that impact performance & productivity. Consistent themes like a shared sense of purpose & priorities help foster a team bond. Leads to positive innovation & retention. Research reveals only 16% of teams feel truly engaged in our global work-force, rest just turn up to work!
What actually drives engagement? An explicit commitment to work-life balance? To feel part of a team we don’t really need an orientation to company culture, specific training courses or development initiatives. Simply, teammates just show up each day, share & support each other. A sense of belonging impacts efficiency, joy, creativity & passion. Companies see boxes on organisation charts, fail to account for actual people. Need a human-centred approach. Teams aren’t defined by who reports to whom or departments. Good teams emerge from a multitude of interactions, challenges, failures & successes.
Random engagement survey’s think they’ve found something useful. Instead, we need to curiously analyse data & consistent feedback in real time. We can balance extrinsic incentives (titles, bonus) with intrinsic incentives (growth, stimulation). Tough to measure but makes the most difference. A big differentiator is our faith in the team leader, brings eight times better results! Check-in with team on two basic questions – what are your priorities? How can I help? Ensures team receives attention, empathy & guidance, rooted in recognitions.
Real teamwork happens behind the scenes – dynamic, spontaneous, defined or structured. Magnify what teams do best – employ their strengths, clarify goals & increase accountability. Finally, what’s the core purpose of team? How can we make each person’s uniqueness useful? High-functioning teams create growth opportunities & new frontiers to explore. Teams can even make their weirdness & quirkiness enjoyable. We can harmonise & integrate the needs of an organisation with an individual employee.