Participating in family life as a young adult was not appealing until that pivotal point at which I was given the trust and authority to complete a task or set of tasks as I saw fit, with the belief from my parents that I was going to accomplish the goal. Given that responsibility, I was no longer a bystander to family life – I was engaged in family life.
Leveraging the available talent within our department is like a dance. As leaders in Credentialing, it is up to us to identify the projects and priorities to assign to our varied team members based on initiatives that may have originated outside of our office. It isn’t always easy to gain the support from your team or the participation required to revamp internal and external processes to better suit the needs of our customers. So, how do we do it?
One of the most important things we can do as leaders is engaging our staff. Our teams want to be involved in the plan and overall strategy. Fostering engagement can lead to ownership and empowerment of your teams to continue on their own. Understanding that as leaders, we cannot do it all, engaged staff help to mitigate the ongoing list of priorities sitting on your shoulders.
Here are a few ideas you can use to foster engagement within your own team:
Allow your team to design their vision of a project. When a team can come together and delivers strategies, ideas, and results based on their understanding of the urgency and needs you have an opportunity to create lasting pride and ownership.
Provide feedback about progress. Keeping in mind that your team needs the ability to “Spread Their Wings” so to speak, remaining available and open to communication with the team is also going to make a lasting impact. By maintaining engagement, yourself, you are able to remind the team that this project remains important and you are dedicated to their success.
Our team members are seeking ways to move up and continue a rewarding career. Utilizing engagement in the form of projects and participation is a way to not only ingrain the skill set, but also a way to sharpen your talented group. Find ways to incorporate small opportunities or projects for your team into the larger goal of career planning and skill set building.
There remain many more avenues for managers and leaders to foster engagement in the workplace, these are but a few examples. Taking time to invest, build up, and maximize the efforts of your most valuable resources will always yield returns.