Five crucial paths lead way to strong workplace engagement

WORKPLACE engagement is the single most important factor in creating and sustaining job satisfaction, productivity and a healthy bottom line.

Workplace engagement is the single most important factor in creating and sustaining job satisfaction, productivity and a healthy bottom line.

Research firm Towers Watson reports that organisations with high rates of engagement outperformed their sector benchmarks by more than double the stock performance of the Dow Jones and Standard & Poor’s indices for five years running.

Great Place to Work’s data shows the value of its 100 best companies grew by 291 per cent between 1998 and 2012. Compare that with the 63 per cent growth of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

To create and sustain high levels of engagement, where do you begin? Start with how you behave as a leader. In Extraordinary Leadership in Australia and New Zealand, we report how leadership is the fundamental factor in creating and sustaining employee engagement levels.

We have analysed more than 5000 case studies and more than five million survey responses from international organisations and industries, and discovered leadership is not the province of a divine few or so esoteric as to be beyond the capacity of mortal men and women. There are “best practices” when it comes to leadership; what we refer to as the five prac­tices of exemplary leadership.

Model the way: When people feel engaged they report their leaders model the way. Being an exemplary leader requires you to find your voice and affirm shared values. You need to set the example by aligning actions with shared values. The least engaged people report their leaders model the way nearly 36 per cent less than leaders of the most engaged.

Inspire a shared vision: Leaders need to incorporate the hopes and dreams of others in any vision about future possibilities. You have to envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities, and enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations. The least engaged people report their leaders inspire a shared vision about 41 per cent less frequently than the leaders of the most engaged people.

Challenge the process: Leaders take people to places they’ve never been. This requires you to search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and looking outward for innovative ways to improve, and experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience.

Enable others to act: Leaders ­realise they can’t do it alone. This necessitates being able to foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships, and finding ways to strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence. The least engaged people report their leaders enable others to act about 29 per cent less frequently than the leaders of the most engaged.

Encourage the heart: Leaders provide people with the courage to struggle together and progress. You do that when you show appre­ciation for individual excellence and celebrate the values and victories by creating a community spirit.

The bottom line is the more frequently leaders demonstrate each of the five practices of exemplary leadership, the more engaged people are at work. Leadership empirically explains more about why people are engaged, or not, than any other variable. You can learn to be a more effective leader.

Michael Bunting co-wrote Extraordinary Leadership in Australia and New Zealand: The Five Practices That Create Great Workplaces