Do You Need to Choose Results Over Engagement?

 

One of my coach friends posted this article How Managers Drive Results and Employee Engagement at the Same Time in her Facebook Group.  The authors Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman looked at the results of 360 assessments for 60,000 leaders.  The article highlights the top 6 skills of leaders who were good at managing both results and engagement successfully:

  • Communicates Clear Strategy and Direction
  • Inspires and Motivates
  • Establishes Stretch Goals
  • Has High Integrity and Inspires Trust
  • Develops Others
  • Is Coachable

This list is a good combination of traits to help you drive for results and have an engaged team.  There are further explanations broken down for each one of these traits in the article.

The data in this article also showed that leaders 30 years of age and under were rated more highly on engagement and results than those in the older age groups.  They determined that the ability to focus on both engagement and results dropped to lower percentages by level in the organization.  Supervisors were by far the strongest with 24% and middle, senior and executive management dropping to around 10% each.   The article suggests that as you progress up the ladder, you may make a choice of focusing on results or engagement, but not both.

It is great to see the younger generation is able to successfully do both things well.  Many of them most likely fall into this supervisors group percentage.  Being on the front lines of a team is a challenging place to be and you need to use strong people skills to motivate teams to get great results.

It is troubling to see that based on this data the older you are and the higher you go in an organization, you may lose that focus on people skills and only focus on results.   There are obviously different pressures to perform at the higher levels in an organization, but this shouldn’t come without being able to ensure your people are being developed and coached.

Leaders need to ensure that their teams are engaged, motivated and supported to be able to get things done and ensure success.  Leaders without engaged followers will not get very far and you will be in a constant state of turnover when your employees leave.   Where would you assess yourself at being able to manage both results and engagement?


Are you looking to improve your skills on people engagement and driving for results? Would you like my help?  Set up time for a free discovery session using this link: Schedule an appointment Coaching through these challenges can make all the difference in your success!​

 

 

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