6th July, 2021 • 4 min

Written by Higson
8th June, 2021 • 3 min
The success of any team is directly correlated with the engagement of the individuals in the team. An engaged team is more proactive, productive and collaborative. There are high levels of trust, honest and transparent communication and everyone feels valued for the work they do. Each individual is more likely to do their best work.
How can we engage our team?
Here are four things you can implement to create an engaging culture where people are motivated to do their best work.
1. Share regular compassionate and honest feedback
When we personally care and challenge directly, we can help each other improve. Feedback is a critical part of creating an engaged team and it is through feedback that we can grow.
Here are four ways to build a feedback culture:
Kim Scott’s radical candour framework is a brilliant guide on how to share feedback effectively and create behaviour change – read more about this in our blog.
2. Communicate the big picture
When we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves, we get a sense of belonging and purpose. This is one of the strongest drivers of motivation and engagement.
Cascading goals are an excellent way to connect the team to the vision. This is a top-down approach of explaining how the goals of teams or individuals align and contribute to the vision and mission. The key is to clearly share how and why their goals link to the big picture and specifically how they are contributing to the vision.
3. Show genuine recognition
According to a recent study, 69% of individuals would work harder if they were recognised more. A simple ‘thank you’ goes a long way. Effective recognition is shared often, explains the behaviour, is genuine and comes in different forms.
Individuals like being recognised in different ways. Take time to learn how your team likes being recognised, some may prefer words, others time, gifts, or actions. For example if someone in your team feels recognised by words you could write a card for them after they have done some great work. If they are recognised by time spent with you then organise a team activity at the end of a project. Or if they are recognised by gifts buy their favourite chocolate bar when they have gone above and beyond. If it is actions that they feel motivated by then after an intense period of work give them an afternoon off to say thank you.
Find out how each person likes to be recognised, often individuals like to be recognised in many forms – so next time you say thank you try to recognise them in one of these ways.
4. Provide training and development
94% of individuals say they would stay longer at a company if it simply invested in helping them learn. Investing in your team’s development has many benefits: it shows you care, it makes them feel valued, they are more likely to stay longer and it improves their performance.
Here are some things you can do with your team immediately:
Implementing these behaviours can have incredible benefits on engagement and motivation. Build trust, connect them to the vision and make people feel valued.
Get in touch to share your thoughts on how you engage your team or for help from the Higson team.