Many organisations espouse a philosophy along the lines of ‘our people come first’ or ‘our people are our business’. This is understandable, because virtually every organisation owes some degree of its success to its people.

But it’s a hard call. For example, what happens when you need to retrench (or lay off) staff to stay afloat or remain profitable, as often happens during a recession – including the recent GFC? Ask any organisation that’s been through this and they’ll tell you the damage it does to staff morale and productivity.

How do you get staff to be happy to work harder?

Even if your organisation hasn’t had to reduce staff, it still wants employees who work hard and enjoy doing so – rather than employees who are unhappy or unmotivated to go the extra mile when it’s needed – right? But how is it done?

Many organisations spend a lot of time and money trying to achieve it. They put policies, processes and reward structures in place, all designed to enhance respect for the individual and ultimately build a culture in which people want to come to work and to work hard or, to use the new HR buzz word, ‘engage’.

There are many things that contribute to engagement (and some factors differ between different industries and roles). A recent article in HR Monthly (October 2009) described a range of incentives intended to increase staff engagement, from birthday gifts and free lunches to high-quality training and development opportunities.

Leaders need to do something

While all of these efforts are worthy, if you’re a leader in your organisation, it’s important you don’t see engagement as just an organisational responsibility that sits only with HR or frontline supervisors and doesn’t directly relate to you. There are some fundamental things that you still need to do.

Remember the old adage: ‘you work for your manager, not your organisation’? It still applies.  And there are recent data to suggest that it’s those in senior management within an organisation who have the most influence on employee engagement (P Langford, HR Monthly November 2009). So no matter how senior or junior you are, or what industry you work in, if your leaders treat you in a way that makes you defensive, uncomfortable or mistrustful, then no amount of free lunches or training courses is going to make up for that.

But what can leaders do?

One thing leaders can do to enhance employee engagement is to improve their own behaviour. Specifically, leaders should pay attention to their interactions with their staff – whether verbal or by email. Just think about the times in your career when your manager said or wrote something to you that made you angry, defensive or upset. Almost certainly you felt demotivated or flat, and you may have even felt like leaving. Now if you’re a leader in your organisation, how do you feel knowing that you might be causing this reaction?

If you think ‘that’s just too bad; it’s a normal part of life’, ask yourself whether your organisation really has the financial luxury to hold such a position. If the answer is no, then perhaps it’s time for you to consider that there’s an alternative.

Examine your values

Back in the 1970s, American academics Chris Argyris and Donald Schön (and more recently Roger Schwarz) researched and wrote about the mindset and behaviours displayed by leaders that inevitably result in the negative responses just described. They also discovered that there is a characteristic mindset and set of behaviours that are more likely to result in positive responses from staff – that is, engagement.

Essentially, these authors suggest that it’s not enough for leaders to simply learn a set of behaviours, because there is a risk that such behaviours might seem manipulative rather than genuine. It is important, then, that leaders also examine their underlying mindset.

Which values lead to engagement?

Leaders who operate under a mindset that results in higher employee engagement value things like:

• Transparency: Providing all relevant information, including reasoning and intent
• Curiosity: Being genuinely interested in finding out people’s views
• Accountability: Being comfortable with accepting responsibility for their actions and the consequences of their actions – even if they are negative
• Free and informed choice: Seeing the difference between commitment and mere compliance. Making decisions – and maximising the ability of their staff to make decisions – based on all relevant information in a way that builds commitment
• Compassion: Being a bit less harsh in their internal judgment about others, or temporarily suspending their judgment about the person and trying to be more understanding about their – and one’s own – situation.

In a world in which we’re often taught to be in control, these values might seem a bit fantastic.  But if you think about it, you already do it – when you’re relaxed and comfortable. Trouble is, when we’re stressed, challenged or embarrassed, most of us tend to be a lot more controlling in our approach.

Are you a cutting-edge leader?

Changing our underlying values isn’t easy. But cutting-edge organisations recognise the link between values and behaviour. Leaders who truly value accountability:

• Examine their own behaviour and the values that drive it
• Seek feedback on their behaviour against their values, and
• Get training and coaching to help them live the values that build engagement.

So leaders, if you’re serious about increasing engagement in your organisation, are you prepared to:

• Evaluate yourself
• Receive feedback about how you may be contributing to – or eroding – engagement in your organisation, and
• Work at changing your values and behaviour?

Andrew Levy is a Melbourne-based  organisational leadership development consultant with a special interest in knowledge management and empowerment of staff.

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