8 questions will tell you if your employees are engaged

There is no doubt that an engaged employee contributes at a higher rate than one that simply could care less about your organization’s mission and vision. Many leaders expect that engagement will come naturally given time or that an employee should automatically be engaged simply by having a job.

The truth is that engagement is a process that can be improved by asking the following eight great questions during your daily contact with an employee. Notice the questions take a positive aspect to focus the employees on what is going right.

1. How are we providing the support you need to accomplish your work?
2. What are you finding most rewarding about your position?
3. What is your favorite part of your work?
4. Do you have any ideas to improve processes or procedures?
5. What customer interaction was most pleasurable today?
6. What is the most productive use of your time?
7. Do you have any ideas of how our organization might save money or time?
8. What is the silliest thing we have asked you to do?

An effective leader practicing active listening will listen to the hidden message as these questions are answered. They will probe for underlying frustrations from this positive perspective, learning what issues are preventing their followers from fully using their talent.

About the author:

Rick Weaver has half a century’s experience in leadership development in retailing. He founded Max Impact Corporation, a leadership and business development consultancy company in 2002. His major accomplishments include working himself from stock clerk to director at a Fortune 50 retail chain and building a $40MM+ construction company in under 5 years. Today he works as an Executive Search Consultant matching management talent with the job culture for which they are uniquely wired.