How Engaged Are Your Employees? Look at Yourself First

How engaged are your employees? Look at Yourself First . As a manager, no matter what it says on your business card, you are an employee and you have a responsibility to be an engaged employee. However, as a manager, you are also responsible for the engagement of others, and if your people are engaged, the results will show it. Non-engaged team members will also be reflected in the business results.

Managers are responsible for the business results of the companies they work for. They are not hired to make employees happy and feel good. They are expected to deliver results. Companies, in turn, reward (or punish) managers based on business results. While this is the right thing to do (managers are responsible for organizational performance), it is only half of the equation. "HOW" results are achieved is as important as "WHAT" results are achieved.

THE PROMOTION PROBLEM

The common problem we encounter with effective managers is this: They keep getting promoted. When coaching in companies, our clients often tell us about their negative experiences with "doers who keep getting promoted." In traditional companies, these employees are considered good doers, and when it comes time for a promotion, they are among the first in the pool of talent. In fact, this is the right thing to do. However, this also creates other problems.

In our experience, an employee identified as a "fixer" is suddenly promoted to manager or team leader without having the tools and competencies needed for leadership. This person may be an excellent developer, but if he/she is not equipped, trained and knowledgeable enough for a managerial role, one of the following 3 scenarios usually results: (1) The person goes through an adjustment period and struggles to acquire the necessary traits to be a good leader; (2) The new manager leverages his/her previous experience to become an even better fixer, but ignores the need to lead and encourage his/her subordinates; (3) The newly promoted person fails to deliver and his/her team fails with him/her.

Of course, we all want the first scenario to happen - that the manager learns, adapts, succeeds and leads. You may have experienced this in your career or worked with such people. However, the most common scenarios are scenarios 2 and 3. Many companies choose to focus on results in order to free themselves from managerial deadlocks (whatever it takes). After all, companies reward results. Isn't that right?

ENGAGED MANAGERS = ENGAGED TEAMS

You may be like one of the managers in the scenario above - a valued individual who was appointed to a leadership position from an individual contributor role without adequate guidance and support. And we hope that you are now receiving adequate guidance and support. You are getting results and leading a strong and cohesive team on the path to success. But never forget that no matter what situation you are in, as a manager you have a huge impact, positive or negative, on those you lead. While it is 50% the responsibility of the employees to be committed to their work, you have more influence over your subordinates than anyone else in the company. Please don't panic when you hear this. The good news is that our research shows that the more engaged you are as a manager, the more engaged your subordinates will be.

TAKE YOUR ENGAGEMENT MAGIC® ENGAGEMENT SELF-ASSESSMENT (only you can see the results)

We all know how critical managers are to organizations, so it would be surprising if their own level of engagement didn't affect the engagement level of their subordinates, wouldn't it? In our research to find out if there is a correlation between the engagement level of managers and the engagement level of their subordinates, we found that the more engaged managers are with the workplace culture and the work, the more engaged the people on their teams will be.

With our partner Decision Wise's research team, we dug deep into employee engagement survey data from 22 companies we work with. We eliminated the results of managers with fewer than 4 subordinates, leaving us with data on 2,300 managers and 18,913 employees. A careful examination of the engagement results of both groups revealed the following:

• In the Manager category, 35% of people fell into the Fully Engaged category, 50% into the Key Contributors (strong and stable employees) category, 13% into the Opportunity Group (neither fully engaged nor fully disengaged), and 2% into the Completely Disengaged group.

• The overall employee population (non-managers) showed a similar distribution: 27% of employees were Fully Engaged, 49% were Contributors, 20% were in the Opportunity Group and the remaining 5% were Completely Disengaged. Download the Infographic Below to Compare These Results with the Employee Engagement Spectrum Data Chart

• If their managers are Fully Engaged instead of in the Significant Contributor Group, the rate of employees being Fully Engaged increases by 50%. The increase in engagement is even greater when compared to the teams of managers in the Opportunity Group and the Totally Disengaged group. In both categories (employee and manager), we see a 157%jump in the percentage of Fully Engaged.

THE RESULTS OF OUR RESEARCH SHOW THAT

1) Engaged managers affect the engagement rates of their teams.

2) Engaged managers lead more engaged teams. So, managers, in this case; what is the first step to build engagement in your team? Commit yourself first.

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY IS AS A MANAGER FOR ENGAGEMENT

ATTEND MAGIC EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TRAINING