In its “Epic Guide to Employee Management”, Wagepoint writes:
“Companies thrive when they have an engaged and motivated workforce, and management plays a strong role in making that happen.”
But what if you aren’t confident that you can be this driving force of employee engagement? In that case, take a managerial lesson from some of the best coaches around.
Lesson #1: Hold employees accountable
When it comes to management, there’s a fine line between micromanaging and being too distant – both of which can cause employees to disengage. Navigating that line becomes easier when you focus not on performance, but on employee accountability instead.
Gregg Popovich, often regarded as one of the greatest coaches in NBA history, explains how he’s put this principle into practice in a FIBA video:
I think you have to have accountability. For us, the thing that works best is total, brutal, between-the-eyes honesty. I never try to trick a player or manipulate them, tell them something that I'm going to have to change next week.
Understandably, employee engagement drops off when employees feel that they’re being lied to or that their objectives are unclear. Be honest, and stay true to your word. Your employees will appreciate it.
Lesson #2: Focus on personal and team development
Sales are lost. Projects fail. Numerous situations occur in the business world that don’t turn out the way we anticipated.
In these instances, it’s easy to become demoralized and to let that affect performance. Bleacher Report’s Michael Felder shares how the lessons his coaches instilled in him kept him going, even when his teams were losing:
You still have to practice, lift weights and play, and there’s no point in going through the motions when you can get better individually and as a team. For me, as a guy who played on a lot of losing teams, that's something that I don't think gets mentioned enough. Good coaches and players focus on those little things and count the small victories.
When things go wrong – as they almost certainly will – encourage your team to treat them as learning opportunities. Both individual employees and organizations as a whole can benefit when they make a conscious effort to learn from their failures.
Lesson #3: Inspire Great Performance
Jim Harbaugh, current University of Michigan head coach, took some heat early in 2016 when recruits who had verbally committed to his program discovered that their offers weren’t guaranteed.
Harbaugh, interviewed by Dan Murphy of ESPN.com, explained that: “We don't hide how we operate and what we do. It's a meritocracy with everything we do in our program. It's going to continue to be that." Joe Pantorno of Bleacher Report describes the functional impact of Harbaugh’s approach:
Basically, if a recruit continues to get good grades in class, play football well and give back to the community, his offer will stay on the table. If grades, performances and/or character drop, then the offer might not be kept.
Different employees are, of course, inspired to great performance by different variables. Harbaugh, in coaching college football, discovered that ensuring that no athlete was handed the “silver spoon” of a guaranteed starting position brought out his players’ competitive nature.
Your employees may respond to a similarly challenging approach, or they may prefer a more team-oriented form of encouragement. It’s up to you, as their manager, to discover the key to keeping them engaged and inspiring great performance.
