Local consultant and writer wrote an excellent piece for the Anchorage Daily News re. needing to start solving employee disengagement at the top of the company. https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2023/12/11/the-problem-of-employee-disengagement-starts-at-the-top/
She offers an assessment tool for leader/managers to have employees complete to rate them (she proposes a scale of 1-7)“in terms of trustworthiness”. She lists 7 elements as follows:
- Is a straight shooter who communicates honestly and openly
- Follows through on what s/he commits to
- Provides leadership we can trust
- Walks his/her talk
- Is authentic; we know what to expect from him/her
- Keeps us in the know about what’s going on in the organization
- Is fair
All of these are worthy, but trustworthiness is not the only performance quality needed to raise engagement. I would add the following:
- Is committed to supporting my performance and career goals
- Provides honest and constructive feedback
- Is willing to coach/train me on areas we agree could improve
- Has realistic expectations of my work
- Provides clear standards for evaluating my work
- Meets with me regularly, at least every two weeks
- Seeks feedback on how h/she can improve people management
- Listens to and is appreciative of my ideas on how the team could improve performance
Those who have read Creating High Performers know that managers and employees partnering for performance on both sides of the relationship is the road to better performance. The Question Method® (incorporating the 7 Questions from the book) is an easy-to-use method to a) establish an honest relationship, b) define how each party in the relationship can improve and c) develop an action plan to gain that improvement.
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