enhance employee engagement within your own sphere of influence. If you communicate in a way that is clear and confident, you inspire trust and encourage dialogue.
Obviously, enhancing employee engagement on a company-wide level is more than a one-person job. Employee engagement is a complicated issue that requires effort at all levels of the organization. Upper management in particular must buy into the importance of engagement and enact an appropriate engagement-boosting strategy within the workplace.
However, any large employee engagement initiative is doomed to fail if individual managers, leaders, and influential employees are not doing their part in day-to-day communication and interaction.
That is where this book comes in. It is loaded with practical communication tools, tips, and techniques you can begin to use today to do your part to enhance employee engagement. These powerful tools are grounded in real-world application and have been used by thousands worldwide. The remarkable communication tools in this book will enable you to begin to enhance employee engagement within your sphere of influence, and your team and colleagues will reap the rewards.
Choose to be, as Tom Peters would say, an “island of excellence.”9
Regardless of what upper management does or does not do to promote employee engagement, regardless of how our fellow leaders choose to think and behave, and regardless of how our peers choose to function, each one of us can make a personal commitment to be an island of excellence even if we are floating in a sea of mediocrity.
Choose to do your part to create an engaged culture. Choose to be the type of leader your employees want to work with and for. Choose to engage in positive behaviors that convey respect. Imagine what your workplace or your team could be like if you choose to use engaging communication. Your team would be a happier, more collaborative, more innovative group. Do your part to make that a reality. And who knows? You just might engage others in your efforts and your island of excellence will grow.
Each tool in this book is a stand-alone technique you can put to work immediately. This means you can read through page by page or just jump in anywhere. Enjoy!
~ Pamela Jett
CHAPTER 1
Employee Engagement, Communication, and Golf
Communication is a bit like professional golf. If you’ve ever watched a golf tournament, you’ve likely noticed that the person who comes in first and the person who comes in second are only separated by a few swings or strokes of the golf club – sometimes as few as one or two.
In terms of prize money, however, as little as one swing of the golf club can make all the difference!
As with golf, small changes in how we communicate can have a huge impact on employee engagement. Making a conscious effort to choose our words wisely, use techniques that build relationships, and use language that builds people up as opposed to tearing them down can make all the difference with respect to building good working relationships. This is crucial because positive relationships are one of the key drivers of employee engagement.
If we practice better communication, we will have better relationships, more engaged employees, stronger bonds with our families, enhanced workplace productivity, and a reputation as the kind of person others want to work with and for. Improving communication doesn’t have to be complicated, since small changes in communication can lead to huge benefits. To increase the likelihood that you will continue improving, start small: choose one tip, tool, or technique and start practicing it today.
Focus on small, well-leveraged changes that will result in an “engaging” style of communication.
CHAPTER 2
Choose Your Mindset
Your mindset – the way you view the world, work, people, experiences, and everything else around you – has a tremendous impact on your ability to use engaging
communication. Mindset is a simple concept defined by world- renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck after decades of research on achievement and success.10
Essentially, Dweck contends that there are two basic mindsets: “fixed” and “growth,” and the mindset we choose can have a profound impact on our behavior and on our success. These mindsets can be summed up as follows:
Traits
•The “fixed” mindset sees traits such as intelligence as “fixed,” or set. A fixed mindset leader would believe that some employees are simply smarter than others and that training, education, or other opportunities are unlikely to change their intelligence level substantially. What an incredibly “disengaging” mindset! This leader or professional doesn’t believe people can learn or develop, so they withhold opportunities, don’t have meaningful conversations about career advancement, and in general treat those who they see as smart and talented in one way (rewarding) and those who they view as less smart and talented in another (withholding). It is very demoralizing to work for a fixed mindset leader if you are looking to have meaningful performance conversations and/or are looking to report to and work with someone who respects you.
•In contrast, the “growth” mindset sees traits like intelligence as something that can be developed. A growth mindset leader believes that through training, education, and other opportunities, people can learn, grow, and develop. This belief can be the foundation for creating employee engagement. Respecting people’s ability to grow and develop can be a precursor to meaningful performance conversations, opportunities to work on interesting projects, and other “engaging” behaviors.
Risk and Change
•The fixed mindset sees risk and change as threats. So, naturally, these leaders place a low value on innovation and new ideas. A fixed mindset leader finds it difficult to encourage people to try new things. They also exhibit stagnant behaviors, such as trying to keep doing things they way they’ve always been done when innovation would be more effective. It is very disengaging to work in a stagnant environment where opportunities to contribute and collaborate don’t exist.
•The growth mindset sees risk and change as opportunities to learn. Naturally, these people are less resistant to change. They are more comfortable with a degree of calculated risk because they know that they may learn from the experience. A growth mindset leader encourages people to innovate, try new things, and be open to creative ways of accomplishing goals. This creates an exciting, dynamic, and engaging environment.
Entitlement
•An individual with a fixed mindset can often feel special, entitled, or better than others. This mindset can foster a “my way or the highway” leadership style where this leader believes that they know best because they have a position of power or authority.
•An individual with a growth mindset can feel good about themselves, but not at the expense of others. This mindset can foster a more open leadership style that involves generous praise and a focus on goal achievement rather than trying to look good or better than others.
Criticism
•Criticism and feedback (even if it is positive) can be viewed by the fixed mindset individual as a threat to the core of their existence. Imagine that all of your life you’ve been told you have a talent for numbers, that you are “smart” that way. (And remember, with a fixed mindset, you are either good with numbers or you’re not; you can’t really change.) Any data that contradicts this view – such as being told that you’ve made
