Employee engagement is a critical issue for most organizations. Today’s environment offers many distractions that can keep your team from fully focusing on the work that is before them. In this video, Chris Goede asks John Maxwell what a leader’s role is in the full engagement of their team.
The level of engagement that an individual on your team exhibits is often tied to how much they feel valued by their leader. In fact, as John states in the video, if I feel valued, inspired, and empowered, I have everything I need to be a fully engaged member of the team.
Empowerment is About Trust
When a leader empowers the members of her team, she is telling them she trusts them to do the job they have been asked to do. How can you tell if someone is worthy of trust? The answer is to empower them. When you give people the chance to show you what they can do, they will also reveal their trustworthiness in the process.
A command-and-control leader will simply tell people what to do, and sometimes how to do it. A leader who has increased their influence beyond their title or position will invest in their people and give them opportunities to show what they can do. When this happens, you increase the depth and quality of your team, which increases their engagement and performance.