9 Ways to Keep your Employee Resource Group Board Members Engaged

Jorge.
Jorge.
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read
  1. Share the vision. Share with your board members the business goals. Everyone who is going to put effort in to do work deserves to know what’s it worth. Give your team the background. What are the business goals? Sometimes as an ERG this might be a difficult question to answer or you might not even have those numbers to show. If so then the first step is to understand what is the business need from your sponsor, Diversity & Inclusion office, Human Resources, etc. Second step — develop your KPI’s long and short term. Finally do work — build a plan with your team to achieve the goals.
  2. Let them brainstorm and come up with the ideas. Now you are in the building a plan stage. You have provided them with the metrics. Allow their minds to come up with the best ideas. Remember when it’s your own idea you are much more passionate about doing the work than when it’s someone else’s. Be the lead and guide them in the right direction and allow them to make decisions. We are working towards the same goal.
  3. Customize your approach. Effectively engaging your board members takes an investment on time — and the willingness to customize your approach for each board member. But having an engaged board of high performers will pay off with significant returns! Develop an understanding of yourself and how you may be seen by others. Learn about your team’s communication preferences. Understand how the team utilizes the strengths of individuals to be successful. Be able adapt your behavior to better connect with others
  4. Communicate with them regularly. Metrics and plan is in place. Now how do you make sure the work is getting done? Remove roadblocks. Be there for them. Get help for them. Set recurring 15 min check-in 1:1 biweekly or monthly. Even better take them out for lunch once a month or eat in the cafeteria.
  5. Do NOT micromanage. We all hate that manager that micromanages. Don’t be that person. Allow them to do the work and provide feedback. Remember to be there when they need you though. Know what’s going on without overwhelming them.
  6. Be supportive and comprehensive. Stuff always comes up like any project change is inevitable. Some of you may know it as scope creep. Listen to your teammates and don’t shut them down. Modify metrics if need be. You will need them next year. Also, know that this is their side job. As an ERG board member you practically have a non-profit part-time job on top of your regular job and family duties.
  7. Set expectations. Once the expectations are clear they will get the work done. Think SMART goals, Specific — Measurable, Agreed Upon, Realistic, Time-based. For the ERG volunteers the agreed upon and realistic goals are the key ones. They must commit to the ERG objective otherwise it’s not realistic of you to expect to obtain the results.
  8. Provide feedback and recognition Anytime feedback and let their managers know how good they are. Email their managers so the recognition it’s documented.
  9. Lead by example. Be a passionate leader. When you are an awesome leader and passionate your board member feel that love and they will do the work because they know how much you CARE.

Original article was posted on my LinkedIn page.

Jorge.

Written by

Jorge.

Millennial. 32. Lean Six Sigma practitioner. Process engineer. Quality expert. Start-up aspirant. Tech history nerd.

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