How to Cultivate Engaged Employees

Presented By: Group 2 Arpit Sharma (141) Manvi Agarwal (142) Hema Sehgal (143) Soumya Jaykumar (144) Bhavya Kakkar (145) Shruti Jindal (146)

Who is an engaged employee?

An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests. There is a growing need to cultivate such employees as performance level increases. Most upwardly mobile managers realize the importance of such employees. However, corporate hierarchy and compulsion to control their own fate can cloud that awareness.

Problem :Employees become reluctant to share their expertise. They may remain functionally interdependent, but the interdependence is ineffective.

Solution
To break the vicious cycle of control and disengagement: Managers must learn to glean contributions from employees. Managers must ensure that every interaction with a subordinate fosters mutuality. Managers must see themselves more as catalysts for problem solving as problem solvers per se.

SIX LESSONS TO CULTIVATE ENGAGED EMPLOYEES

1.BE MODEST

Modesty often clashes with basic fears. What managers do??

Nervous about proving themselves

Discourage subordinates from speaking up

Fail to benefit from the subordinates experience

Telling irrelevant self-referential stories

Showcase your own insecurities

What ought to be done ??

a) Stop and apologize for blathering. b) Experiences recounted should be

Brief

Related

c) Ideas and advice should be helpful d) Share both mistakes and successes

Brings you down to earth in the eyes of subordinates

Self reflection on the reason behind the sharing of the story

2.LISTEN SERIOUSLY-AND SHOW IT

Problem-

Listening skills of managers getting better.

However, their teams dont always see it or recognize that it matters.

Teams

May resist change despite best efforts to engage in decision making.

Maybe suspicious.
Why does this happen?

Communication is multifaceted.

What ought to be done??

Manage signals such as your body language, where you look, what you do with your hands. Dont check time while someone else is speaking.

3.INVITE DISAGREEMENT

Problem: Despite trend towards flatter organizations, strong cultural and company norms work against dissent.

Consequences: Managers may have to struggle to get employees to do anything more than executive orders. Feedback elicitation may be a difficulty.

What ought to be done??

Reformat meetings in simple ways- example, changing the seating arrangement.

Elicit direct feedback, particularly disagreement.

Make every interaction with a subordinate fruitful:
Tap their expertise Encourage expression of thoughts

Adopt a more personal approach when dealing with team members belonging to other generations, cultures or professional backgrounds.

4.FOCUS ON AGENDA :

Managers willingly initiate disagreement in undisciplined way More time you put on agenda less time you have to discuss it properly Racing through parts of agenda causes consternation. Taking up lot of agenda in a single meeting results into:
critical issue being missed out time limit of the meeting being exceeded

What ought to be done ?

Sequence the issue according to its importance. Omit those that can be settled in offline chat. Send written briefings the day before.

Results : Quality of discussion improved Performance of the team improved

5.DONT TRY TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS :Managers feel sense of inadequacy when solutions are elusive. They try to come up with an answer on the spot Compulsive nature sometimes overpower their decisions. It results in unexpressed tension among the subordinates.

What ought to be done? Manager should take the role of a catalyst for problem solving, than as a problem solver per se. Better managerial skill is a willingness to admit Im not sure what the answer is. Lets have the team toss some ideas about.

6.DONT INSIST THAT A DECISION MUST BE MADE :Conventional management wisdom holds that a flawed decision is better than no decision . But its not always favourable to be decisive . People stop giving their inputs as they think the person

has already made up his mind in advance already knows something that they dont will not respond well to frequent dissent.

What ought to be done? Build consensus. If you dont get agreement on a decision dont rush to impose one. Instead a process should be placed that yields the decision .

BENEFITS OF THE SIX LESSONS

Managers stop controllling their subordinates

Subordinates are empowered, engaged and motivated.

Subordinates contribute their knowledge and experience to a consensus approach.

Company benefits from smarter and better-executed decisions.

THANKYOU