How Do I Get My Teams to Connect to the Pulse of the Business

Are your employees truly engaged and invested in your business?

Your team may get the job done, but if you really want them to connect to the very pulse of the business, you have to put some work in.

In this post, we’re sharing some ideas on how you can improve employee engagement and build a world-class team.

Keep reading to learn more or press play on the video below to hear from joyFULL People visionary, Eric Roman.

Every business leader dreams of having a team that’s truly engaged and invested in the success of the business. But building engagement like that is easier said than done.

In fact, a mistake some businesses make is to focus solely on the numbers, i.e., the salary. Now, salary can be a great motivator…in the short term. You’ll likely hear from employees that higher salaries are all employees want.

The problem is that it’s not a permanent solution. If what you want is lasting, continuous engagement, we have to dive a lot deeper.

But where do you start? It all starts with your vision.

Building a vision is crucial to engagement

The top companies in the world do a great job of connecting their vision to tangible, real-world changes and engagement in their team. Their visions are vivid, clear, measurable, and everyone knows where they stand.

Why is this? There are two key reasons:

1. Everyone wants and deserves to know where they stand. They deserve to know if they’re doing a great job (or if they’re not).

2. Employees want to know they’re making an important contribution to a better world, not just their bank account.

That connection between purpose and business performance is what the world is asking for right now. And that responsibility lies with you as a business leader.

That’s what it means to be a leader in a company nowadays. You may be thinking, this has never been a problem before. But times have changed.

This is what the new generations of workers are expecting because expectations have changed. People want more from their employers.

How do you improve engagement within your team?

To truly connect your team to the business’ performance, you need to follow five simple steps.

1. Build a vision that’s bigger than yourself

Business leaders and company owners may already have a very clear vision…for themselves. It may be to make millions of dollars or a reputation as one of the top companies in your industry.

But what about your team? Can they really connect to that vision?

Most likely no, which is why you need to build a vision that’s bigger than yourself and bigger than your bank account.

Remember, employees want to know they’re making an important contribution to the world, so you need to find a way to solidify that idea in your company vision. Make it real, make it vivid, so people can really get behind it.

2. Turn your vision into clear measurements

The next step is to take that vivid vision and turn it into clear and concise measurements. The best way to do this is to turn to numbers. Numbers are the easiest way to measure something. It’s much clearer to see a vision come to life if you can quantify it.

Find a way to tie your company vision and aims to numbers. This could be in target signups, profits, sales calls, etc. Whatever it is, make it measurable and clear.

If you decide to tie it to profitability, you also need to make sure your team fully understands the score here.

In a lot of cases, employees don’t really understand the details of how your business works. They may not be familiar with the profit and loss model or ROI, or sales targets. So, if they need to understand that to see that vision clearly, it’s your job to explain it to them.

3. Measure often

Step number three is to measure often. Once you have that tangible vision and a clear way to measure it, don’t just forget it. Make sure you measure it all the time. People always need to know where they stand and whether they’re hitting their targets.

If you find an employee isn’t hitting targets, don’t just tell them off. Ask them what they need to up their game. How can you help them? You’re a team, after all.

This brings us on to step number four…

4. Be a coach

Your job as a leader isn’t to yell at or tell people off when they fall short. That gets no one anywhere good fast.

Instead, your job is to be a coach. You need to empower your team members. Having a vision alone isn’t enough. You have to empower them to hit those goals.

Ask your team: what do you need from me to help you achieve these goals?

5. Keep repeating yourself

You may sound like a broken record, but you must never stop repeating yourself about:

• Where you’re going

• How you can measure that

• What you can do to help your team

You have to keep repeating these things because your team almost certainly won’t hear it the first, second, third, or maybe even tenth time. That’s totally normal. It’s human nature.

But this is what it means to lead. The way to develop consistent engagement is (unsurprisingly) to be consistent yourself.

It means you need consistent goals, visions, and coaching to get your team where you need them to be.

If you run with these steps and implement them consistently, you will see much deeper engagement in your team. You’ll see your team understand and engage with the very pulse of your business.

To learn more ways to develop engagement in your team and to be an effective coach, check out the joyFULL People Signature Program: https://joyfullpeople.com/