Part 2: Helping Employees Engage
Stoke Leadership
We STOKE the energy of leaders, and we make them better. Better leaders. Better teams. Better culture. Better results.
We can’t get improving employee engagement out of our minds.
Remember how we created a new holiday last month? If you don’t, feel free to click here to refresh your memory.
We declared November 20th as the new Boss Listens Day. A day for each leader to just listen to their employees talk about their jobs. Hopefully you took this to heart and really heard what your employees had to say about their work. To hear how engaged (or not) they really are.
The good news is our second new holiday is coming up in a couple of weeks. National Work Reset Day on December 20th is the perfect time to re-evaluate, realign and refocus work for your teams and individuals. It’s the day to acknowledge what your employees said to you, and give them work that will challenge and inspire them in the new year.
Like we said last month, these two new holidays can transform how employees feel they are valued, and how engaged they are at work. All without needing to change any corporate policies.
We have a couple of additional steps we think you should be taking to address employee engagement. And these may take a little more effort to implement, but the outcomes make it worthwhile.
Employers need to be realistic about titles and job duties, because job burnout is real.
SHRM’s Employee Mental Health in 2024 Research Series found that 44% of respondents felt burned out at work.1 This feeling can come from being overwhelmed, having too much work, or a job that has no flexibility. And all this comes back to how jobs are structured, usually with too many expectations for one person to fulfill.
We see those deer-in-the-headlights looks all the time when talking to employees.
I’ve recently spoken to a newly promoted “Working Manager” who along with their previous individual contributor duties, is now learning how to lead a team. This person has been drowning. They are supposed to do two jobs—manage the team AND contribute to the team—do them well, keep their team engaged, meet their goals…their list of expectations is endless. This glorified individual contributor is not being set up for success.
To help alleviate these feelings of being overwhelmed, we want to simplify job duties and roles. This means resurrecting the role of “Manager” and canceling the role of “Working Manager.”?
Managers and Rockstars should be different positions.? Take the individual contributor duties off a manager and assign them more direct reports.? This allows Managers to focus on being the best strategic-focused coach who delivers results through the team.?
And finally, the best way to improve the life of your employees… eliminate annual goal setting and implement MONTHLY goal setting.?
Yep, we may have just lost a few readers with this one, but hear us out.
The world is moving way, way, WAY too fast for anything to be annual.? Just think about how many times have your priorities changed over the last year as your business needs changed.
Annual goals create quiet quitters, undercover dual-employer employees, and minimal effort coasters.? It isn’t because they are lazy.? It’s because they are dissatisfied because their daily work doesn’t align with how they are evaluated. And recent research by The Conference Board says 37% of employees fall into this state of dissatisfaction with their jobs.2
We think monthly meetings to set near-term priorities - combined with a discussion that focuses on what the employee needs to be successful - is the key to success. Empowering each employee to meet these targeted goals changes their mindset. They have autonomy, they have purpose, and they have a clear understanding of how their success will be measured. Managers keep them fully engaged and challenged, without feeling overwhelmed.
Small changes. A huge difference in employee engagement.
Let us know how Stoke Leadership can help you get your employees committed and excited to come to work.