Getting Personal with Employee Engagement
Lessons from April’s Servant Leadership Community of Practice
Imagine this…you’re standing in the front of a crowded room when suddenly a camera is pointed in your direction and all eyes are on you.
Do you get nervous and shy away? Or do you shine in the spotlight?
As a leader, what steps are you taking to shine in the spotlight & be a role model for your employees?
In our April 2023 Servant Leadership Community of Practice, under the facilitation of Christa Williams, Executive Director and Learning Facilitator, we turned the spotlight inward and evaluated how each of us shows up as engaged servant-leaders.
“The desire to serve is the single most important characteristic that distinguishes a servant-leader from all other leaders.” – Kent Keith
Employee engagement is most often discussed from the lens of a positional leader or organization to create an engaged workplace for others. Seldom, do individuals take accountability for their own engagement.
So we began by asking our attendees this question, “What does my servant leadership look like on my best day?”
- Have a positive attitude and an awareness of others to show them that they care.
- Start my day early so that I can be prepared to help others in whatever way possible.
- Work on being present. Listen with empathy.
- Slow down, pause, and listen so that others can speak.
To be present as leaders, Robert Greenleaf turns our focus to the individual. Don Frick said in The Contemporary Servant as Leader…”always, always, Greenleaf returns to the responsibility of an individual to act where and how he or she can.”
It’s up to us as individuals to show up as engaged employees!
As you assess your engagement, consider these factors:
Job Satisfaction
- How content are you with your work environment?
- Eventually, you may get bored, possibly leave, or slip into the actively disengaged category if you’re not challenged or willing to do more.
Employee Morale
- How do you demonstrate a greater sense of purpose and connection to performance?
- “Most [engagement] initiatives amount to an adrenaline shot. A perk is introduced to boost scores, but over time the effect wears off and scores go back down.” – Forbes
Employee Engagement
- Engagement is defined as both the act of engaging AND the state of being engaged.
- Highly engaged employees put extra effort into what they do and have a strong, emotional and intellectual connection to their work and the organization.
If you want a more fulfilling work experience, YOU need to take an active role in fostering your own engagement.
Tools for Personal Reflection:
Use an Empathy Map to define what engagement looks like for you and how it affects your behaviors.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What will you do and say?
- How will you think and feel?
- What will others hear?
- What will others say?
Take Gallup’s Q12 Employee Engagement Survey
- Read the Q12 items and think about what it would take for you to strongly agree with each item.
- Consider whether or not you feel that your workplace meets your emotional needs.
- Then, do the following:
- Assess areas where your engagement is strongest or weakest.
- Identify the most and least engaging moments in your day, as well as what leads up to those moments.
- Think about how you work best and what conditions set you up for success.
- Consider the habits — good and bad — that contribute to or chip away at your engagement.
After you reflect on these questions, create a personal engagement plan. You don’t have to do everything in your plan at once — even small steps will lead to big results!
“What do you already know about yourself to be engaged?” – Linda Belton
What Attendees Shared:
Expanding on the takeaways above, our attendees also contributed their own leadership lessons on employee engagement. They shared the following:
- We underestimate the power of reflection. Do it twice a day and ask yourself, “How did things go? How can I be better tomorrow?”
- Pay attention to where I’m at in the moment. Don’t multitask.
- Ask more questions. Being curious leads to learning and building connections.
- Get uncomfortable to get comfortable. We all have different experiences and it’s good to share and speak up in group discussions, especially if you’re new.
- Be mindful of applying my strengths in different environments. What brings me energy may deplete my coworker, supervisor, or employees.
- Take a personal retreat to regain my energy. If my confidence was shaken, take a step back to reconnect with my place of passion and purpose.
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What have you learned from this blog? Contact us and let us know!
Don’t miss your opportunity to join our next conversation! Community Practice sessions are amazing opportunities for any and all leaders to gather and learn from one another in a supportive, comfortable environment, right from your computer. May’s Community of Practice topic will be “Lean Into Listening: Weaving the Wisdom of the Whole.”
Additional Resources:
- The Contemporary Servant as Leader
- Kent Keith editor from the original essay by Robert K Greenleaf
- Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
- Robert K Greenleaf
- The Intentional Servant Leader
- Linda Belton
- Employee Responsibility for Engagement
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This blog post wraps up April 2023’s Community of Practice event. To join us during the live discussion for future months, register online. Community of Practice occurs the fourth Tuesday of each month from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CT.
