It should be no surprise that one of the key factors in creating an engaged employee and ultimately an engaged team is the relationship we have with our manager.
According to a 2010 study conducted by Skakon et al, ‘the relationship between leaders and their employees, and specific leadership styles are all associated with employee stress and effective well-being’ (source).
The causal link between effective line management and employee engagement has been well documented. The UK’s ‘Engage for Success’ movement identified engaging managers as one of the four key enablers: ‘Engaging managers focus their people and give them scope, treat their people as individuals and coach and stretch their people.’
Managers already have very demanding roles.
Often as the technical expert within their field, they juggle managing budgets and delivering team plans and corporate objectives. Demands pushed down from the top by senior leaders and demands coming up from the shop floor can make the manager feel very squeezed and quite frankly ready to burst. For any fans of the BBC’s Nighty, Night – this classic line might feel familiar!
“Everybody please, I am NOT an octopus!”
The biggest challenge the line-manager faces is finding quality time.
Time to develop their own skills and knowledge, time to spend with each direct report, time to spend with the team as a whole and time to reflect on their own management practice and the impact this is having on others.
If we strip away all the layers of management best practice and get back to basics, a manager is “someone who achieves results through the efforts of others”, and highly engaged staff yield the best results for your business. According to the government’s extensive McLeod report, ‘organisations with highly engaged employees achieve 43% more revenue, 12% higher customer advocacy, 18% higher productivity and up to four times greater financial performance’ (source).
Getting the best out of those you manage is your primary role and allowing yourself quality time to reflect on what you could be doing better is the first step on the road to success.
Why not check out our post on the 7 ingredients to becoming an engaging Manager!
