Leaders, Are Your Teams Engaged?

When President John F. Kennedy said that America would put a man on the moon, he set in motion a great engine of engagement, unleashing tremendous creative energy…and changing the world. JFK shared a compelling and inspiring vision. And thousands of NASA engineers made it a reality.

This is the essence of what leaders do. As Warren Bennis once put it, Leading is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

When leaders communicate the Goal and the Purpose, they generate excitement and energy. As General George S. Patton once famously said: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and why, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

Do you want to become a more Engaging Leader?

In my work with diverse organizations since the late 1990’s, I’ve identified ten leadership practices that I have combined into an acronym that I call ALICE:

Align & Appreciate

These two practices are about High Focus. By Aligning, the Engaging Leader gets everyone focused on where the company is going (Goals, Objectives and Plans) and how each person can play a part in getting it there. By Appreciating, the Engaging Leader gets to know each person on his or her team, especially their talents, their strengths, their aspirations, and their life concerns.

Listen & Learn

These two practices illustrate the Leading By Example principle. By Listening, the Engaging Leader adopts an open posture, receptive to all points of view, even those that are different from his or her own. By Learning, the Engaging Leader continues to grow, replenishing and revitalizing his or her own sources of creativity.

Involve & Improve

These two practices tap into the human yearning for Purpose and the desire to Participate. By Involving, the Engaging Leader treats each person like a partner in the business and asks “What do you think?” By Improving, the Engaging Leader uses collaboration and teamwork to find better ways to do things, solutions to operating problems, and even innovations that can lead to breakthroughs for the company.

Communicate & Coach

These two practices, along with the next two, are the key to High Performance. By Communicating, the Engaging Leader establishes a clear channel of dialogue with each member of the team so that information and ideas flow back and forth continuously, resulting in Understanding and Commitment. By Coaching, the Engaging Leader gives on-going performance feedback to each of his or her players, supporting and encouraging them to do their very best.

Energize & Empower

These two practices replace the old “Command and Control” model of leadership with a new model based on motivation and trust. By Energizing, the Engaging Leader activates the excitement of Mission, tapping into the human desire for autonomy, for self-determination, and for self-mastery. By Empowering, the Engaging leader galvanizes and authorizes the team to Execute, to decide how best to get to where its going, trusting that a well-trained team will use its resources wisely to reach a high quality decision.

By doing these ten practices consistently and continuously, a good manager will become an Engaging Leader. And she will be able to move the needle on engagement, on morale, on productivity, and even on profitability.

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development. You can find him on twitter at tseamon and on facebook at Facilitation Solutions.

Learn more about leadership and engagement in Terry's book Lead the Way.

The Essence of Leadership

What is the essence of leadership?

Essence = the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing; the inward nature; the substance, spirit, lifeblood, heart, principle, soul, core.

At the core, leadership is about moving toward a desired goal in relationship with others. There is much involved, including these eight aspects:

Purpose - A leader is here for a reason, a mission, and pursues it with intention and determination.

Commitment - A leader can be counted on to make and keep commitments.

Presence - A leader will show up and stand up for what's important.

Listening - A leader wants to know what others are thinking and feeling and pays close heed.

Engagement - A leader connects with others, communicates with others, challenges others, is considerate of others, and coaches others.

Vision - A leader is going somewhere good.

Stewardship - A leader accepts responsibility and understands the saying "Take care of yourself; take care of each other; take care of this place."

In this new blog, Go To Leader, I will be delving into these and other aspects of the essence of leadership.

I hope you will benefit by these thoughts. Please add your own.

Leaders, Are your teams aligned?

"Old-fashioned as I am, I measure alignment by asking hourly workers what they think the goals of the plant are and what their particular task is in relation to their piece of that pie. If that jives with the CEO/Plant manager's, then I'm happy." ~ Robert Crosby, Organizational Effectiveness Consultant and Author

There is the story told about a time that President Kennedy visited NASA:

 "On a visit to the NASA space center, President Kennedy spoke to a man sweeping up in one of the buildings. 'What's your job here?' asked Kennedy. 'Well Mr. President'" the janitor replied, 'I'm helping to put a man on the moon.'"

That, in a nutshell, is alignment. And that little story says a great deal about why alignment is so important to a business.

When people are aligned with the mission, the vision, and the goals of the business, they get it. They see that what they do every day matters. They understand that their job contributes to the overall success of the endeavor.

In Lean organizations, alignment is Hoshin Kanri which means Direction and Execution. Putting them together gives you the compass you need to reach your destination each day. In addition, you will need Leadership and Engagement.

These six questions will help you as a leader to guide the alignment in your organization and team:

What is the mission and vision?
What are the values?
Who is our Customer and what do they want from us?
What are our goals and objectives?
What are the measures? Safety-Quality-Delivery-Cost
What are the MITs (Most Important Things) we must accomplish today? This week?
What problems must we address to improve our processes and our results?

Terrence Seamon has over thirty years of business experience in leadership development, management training, team building, and organizational change, in both internal as well as external consulting roles. Terry has a Master’s degree in Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Human Communication from Rutgers. His main interest areas these days are change and transition, job search coaching, stress and wellness, employee engagement, and leadership development.