Mastering Engagement Intelligence: Boost Team Morale and Productivity (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Engagement is all about feelings. As Carl Buchner said, people will forget what you say, they'll forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. Engagement is a measure of the team's emotional commitment to their leader, and it's critically important for the bottom line. In America, disengagement costs business over $350 billion a year, and in Australia $45 billion. Gallup studies show only 30% of people are actively engaged, despite all the attention on engagement. Do you really know how engaged your people are? In the engagement surveys I conduct, the average business has about 50% engaged and disengaged in total. This is a leader's first great opportunity. The remaining 50% sitting on the fence, waiting for a leader to engage them. I call this the leader's sweet spot. An actively engaged team member is around 30% more productive than a fence-sitter, and retention is dramatically improved, so it's essential that leaders work this sweet spot. A leader's second opportunity is to disengage people, or bad apples. Target them as well. Help them adjust their attitudes, or help them find another job. Great leaders have emotional intelligence, but to really drive results and be exceptional, leaders need what I call EQ2, engagement intelligence. EQ2 involves really understanding your people, finding their individual motivators, and working on these hot buttons to improve morale, attitude, and results. In my book, The People Pill, and in my engagement presentations, we cover many strategies a leader can implement immediately. They cost virtually nothing and are guaranteed to make people feel great about themselves, which is a real secret to getting the best out of people and engaging them. Some of these strategies include five-minute desk chats. These are a way to show people you care about them. Mary, what's on for the weekend? Sending out personalized handwritten cards that recognize specific contributions are timely and from the heart. Morning teas to celebrate progress and success stories. Holding a breakfast of champions to acknowledge effort. Pretend people have a banner on their forehead. Make me feel special. Remember, people usually leave leaders, not organizations, and it's a line leader's responsibility for attitude and engagement. I recommend you measure your team engagement and implement strategies like the ones above. Focus on that sweet spot to bring everyone along and create a culture of engagement. It really will change your bottom line and retain and attract the best people. If you think of the best boss you ever had, it'll be someone who helped you believe in yourself, cared about you, and developed and inspired you. In other words, they engaged you. Become a master of EQ too and be the best boss your team ever had.