Send to KindleEmployee Engagement
Employee engagement. It’s become something of a buzz phrase in the management and leadership world. While employee engagement isn’t that difficult, it does seem to be something a lot of leaders have a difficult time with. I recently saw an interview with Randi Zuckerburg. If you recognize the name, it’s because she is Mark Zuckerburg’s sister. She left a promising career with a marketing firm to join Facebook and help with the startup and then spent several years directing marketing for Facebook.
As a leader, something you should get from the interview is her feeling on being able to have and implement her own ideas; of being entrusted with projects that were really way beyond what you’d expect a junior marketing employee to do. She found this was the case in her first marketing job even before she joined Facebook. That is one of the keys to employee engagement: when employees feel they have an opportunity to have ideas and implement them; to be part of actually bringing things to life.
It’s true that you can’t have a company where everyone gets to go off and do their own things. But, when employees feel their opinions, their expertise is valued and will be given a fair hearing, and they’ll be able to do more than just be the person who runs and does things for other’s ideas, that’s when employees will really begin to feel engaged. And that’s when you as a leader will begin reaping the benefits of engaged employees.
So what are you doing with your employees? Are they just running around implementing your ideas, or are you giving them the opportunity to be part of the idea process themselves?
Here’s the link to Randi Zuckerburg’s interview with meettheboss.tv. http://tinyurl.com/6rdlgc7
