Is Your Team Engaged at Work?
The way you lead could make the difference
Does your team know why their work matters? When is the last time you reminded them?
As a leader, you account for 70% of variation in employee engagement scores. Whether your team is engaged or not is largely up to you. This can be a heavy burden to bear, but reminding them of their purpose is a surefire way to boost engagement.
Your job is to set the course for your team and then frequently remind them why this matters.
The difference between working with purpose and working without is as great as the difference between sweeping floors and sending a man to the moon.
John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA in 1962. He crossed paths with a janitor, doing his job, cleaning the floors. JFK paused and asked this man, “What do you do here?” Perhaps the broom wasn’t obvious enough. “Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
How’s that for a response? This man might have been sweeping the dust off the floor, but he was focused on the dust on the moon. He knew his work mattered. He knew his purpose.
Where is your team focused? Are they sweeping floors, or are they putting someone on the moon?
I spent 18 months as a barista. I wasn’t in college at the time, or trying to “find myself” before starting my career. I was well into my career and loved what I was doing, but still jumped at this opportunity. I didn’t do it for the love of coffee (although I do love coffee). I wasn’t excited about working in any coffee shop; I was excited about working in this particular coffee shop. This was a coffee shop on a mission. “Impacting lives with every cup.” It was catchy, and it was something I believed in. It was a non-profit coffee shop, dedicated to paying fair wages to the farmers who grew the coffee, and then donating 10 pounds of food to a local food bank for every pound of coffee sold.
Waking up at 4:30am to go to work is hard. It’s a little bit easier, though, if you believe your work is making a difference. On most days, I worked with a sense of purpose, but I still needed a boost from time to time. There were times when all I could see was the espresso machine in front of me. It’s easy to lose sight of the purpose, even if it’s the reason you started the job in the first place. I needed my manager to remind me why we were doing this. Your team needs that too. Here’s how you do it.
“[Leaders] provide the two simple locators that every navigation process requires: Here is where we are. Here is where we want to go.”¹ Have you ever tried using GPS on your phone when it doesn’t know exactly where you are? Directions are hard to follow if you don’t know the starting point.
Define your current location
That’s your first job as a leader. Define your current location. Talk to your team. What’s working well? What isn’t? Ask for their input and offer yours as well. These conversations will reveal your starting point.
The exciting part comes next.
Define the destination
This is your purpose. JFK said he wanted to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. That’s a clear purpose! When you do this for your team, you’re telling them why their work matters. “Impacting lives with every cup” transformed my perspective from a barista into a world changer. That’s the power of purpose.
It isn’t enough to talk about it during your annual staff retreat or semi-annual all hands meetings. If it’s going to make a difference, you need to remind them frequently.
As George Bernard Shaw said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” If you think you’ve communicated the purpose enough, do it again. Once you get tired of hearing it, your team is just starting to get the picture. Keep going.
This matters now, more than ever
With so many people working from home right now, motivation is especially likely to suffer. People on your team are juggling multiple responsibilities. They’re homeschooling kids, they’re worrying about at-risk family members, and they’re trying to stay sane through it all. It’s getting harder and harder to remember why their work is important.
You can make the difference.
Setting the course for your team and reminding them why it matters transforms you from an average boss into an inspiring leader. You aren’t just telling them how to make coffee, or making sure the floors are swept. You’re telling them their work matters. You’re inviting them to be part of something bigger.
The people you lead devote a lot of time to their work. When you lead them with purpose, you make that time meaningful. Working with purpose transforms our perspectives and keeps us engaged. Whether that happens or not is up to you.
You can do it.
[1] Daniel Coyle, The Culture Code, 180.
