Training Industry Magazine - Leadership 2015 Special Edition - (Page 13)

HERE ARE A FEW DO'S AND DON'TS FOR VIRTUAL INTERACTIONS WITH A DISTRIBUTED WORKFORCE: How Not to Engage Distributed Workers How to Engage Distributed Workers * Send out emails with a laundry list of information items with no clear invitation or request for questions or suggestions. * Send out short and regular video updates with an authentic invitation to comment and an appreciation for employees' time. * Conduct employee satisfaction surveys; then don't share findings. Leave people in the dark. * When asking for input, tell people how you intend to use the information and then follow through on your promise. * Delegate decision authority, but when you don't like the choice employees make, take back the authority, or provide little or no resources for execution. * Be explicit about an individual's or team's authority (e.g., whether the team has the job to make a recommendation or the power to make a decision). * Charter teams by email without clear decision authority, boundaries, roles, conditions or ways to stay in communication. * Delegate responsibility for big jobs in a web-conference. Use graphics to walk through the task and various protocols. TRUST IN LEADERSHIP IS A FOUNDATION FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT From 2009 to 2014, Interaction Associates conducted an annual research study surveying leaders in hundreds of global companies. The findings revealed that high-profit growth companies were twice as likely as companies with low profit growth to have high-involvement cultures. Companies with high-involvement cultures were two to four times as effective in retaining key employees as companies that simply took remedial steps to address employee complaints or companies that involved employees down the line of stakeholders, with customers, shareholders and suppliers being more considered or engaged. The research also confirmed that trust forms the foundation for engagement. This conclusion makes intuitive sense. Why would employees want to share responsibility for results with leaders they don't trust? Low levels of trust create an "us versus them" mindset, not the "we" attitude needed to create high involvement and strong business results. DAILY TRUST-BUILDING PRACTICES Dependable leadership behavior is a primary driver of trust. Here are three daily trust-building practices to engage both co-located and distributed workers: * Reveal your thinking. Leaders who share assumptions and motives win the trust of employees. It may feel vulnerable at first, but revealing the truth makes you stronger and your employees safer and more confident. If information can't be shared, state your reasoning upfront and give people whatever facts you can. * Seek maximum appropriate involvement. It's human for a leader to choose minimum necessary involvement when tackling a tough problem. We get nervous about losing control of either the decision-making process or the quality of the solution. To resolve this dilemma, define the decision to be made and the right level of involvement of key players. At the very least, employees want to be asked for their input on decisions that will affect them personally. * Err on the side of more communication. When reasonable people feel included and understand the larger goal and why it's important, they tend to align their own purpose and needs with those of the collective. They make conscious choices to course-correct when "a good move for me" would undermine "the right move for us." ENGAGE PEOPLE IN A WAY THAT YOU WOULD MOST WANT TO BE ENGAGED. Engaged employees are committed to the mission and success of the organization. They experience job satisfaction and bring their best selves to work. Authentic engagement is not extracted or manipulated into being. It is an employee choice that comes from mutual respect and trust with leadership. Using the Golden Rule of Engagement, collaborative leaders reflect how they would like to be engaged and then make conscious choices about how to engage others. Barry Rosen is president and CEO of the workplace collaboration and performance improvement firm, Interaction Associates. Email Barry. TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - LEADERSHIP2015 I SPECIAL EDITION I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE 13 http://www.trainingindustry.com

Training Industry Magazine - Leadership 2015 Special Edition

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