There’s no leader that hasn’t sat awake at night pondering how to get employees and team members onboard with their vision and targets. Not to comply, to engage. To care and invest of themselves towards an outcome or a metric / change.

Which goes to show why executive coaches are so busy…

We’ve all seen it done effortlessly. Some leaders have a ‘very average’ idea and boom – instant buy-in. For others, no matter how many courses they take, mentors they have, ways they pitch it, the “bite” from their people never happens.

How can some leaders get genuine employee and team engagement so easily?

Effective and sustainable leadership around engaging people isn’t a “life hack” moment, it’s a collection of variables. There’s no one thing that someone does and another doesn’t. And even the best leaders can and do get it wrong. It also comes down as much to your people as you. A good leader must know how to both read and move a room to action and no two rooms are the same. So whether you feel like leading effectively completely eludes you, or you’re confident – almost to the point of being good at this stuff, we can all improve. I’ve seen it happen. Mix in a bit of self forgiveness and humility and this will all go down MUCH smoother.

Fortunately too, we are simple creatures at core and our basic needs from leaders haven’t changed much over time. Anyone that develops a high-quality base skill-set can achieve measurable levels of success, regardless of their situation. This isn’t about having the ‘gift of the gab’ or being charismatic and charming.

Those traits often have the reverse effect when you want people’s attention and focus for long periods of time. So stress not, whether you consider yourself introverted, extroverted or a mix of both, anyone can sharpen this skillset.

In this article, I’m going to break down what I know has worked for me and the leaders I’ve coached through improving talent engagement at both a mid and senior level. I’ve given some initial considerations, exercises and then implementation techniques of core principles that have been field tested not just by me, but by those far more gifted. Remember, no article is a ‘one stop shop’ for essentially cultural change. Treat this as a resource to complement your skillset.

I’ve also kept this guide general to keep the ideas relevant and easy to follow. So whether you are at a C-Suite level, run your own business or just earned your first stripes, there will be concepts in here that will help you develop this most valuable of skills. First key takeaway – DON’T overthink any of it.

Make no mistake, leading and driving employee engagement is a skill and a system. It’s not in our DNA, but it can be learned and improved upon. Have fun!

How to use this article

You will need a notepad and pen and perhaps a stiff drink. I also suggest taking time and coming back to this over a few days. A great deal of the time I will ask you to pause and question yourself. Give yourself the space and environment to process.

With any question you’re asked, try to focus on the first few answers that come to you. Long lists or detail isn’t what we’re going for, it will make things far too messy. Trust your gut that if something comes to your mind, it has done so for a reason. For best results too, always talk this through with your coach and mentor. It’s so much harder to process alone.

Disclaimer – This article is written for general education and informational purposes only. It is not to be considered, or used in lieu of, any specific personal or professional advice.

Employee Engagement – A vantage point health check

We first need to appraise the situation in which you find yourself. Don’t dwell too long on this first section, I just want you to notice where your mind goes or if there are any sticking points. The aim is for you to gain some clarity on the roadblocks and issues surrounding your planned changes BEFORE you jump into implementing them.

If there’s no journey, why have a leader?

Unless people are moving from A-B, they do not need a guide. If your desire is to keep the status quo, then you’re talking about managing, not leading. That’s ok, but maintaining a state is VERY different to changing one.

This article is about getting buy-in from a team towards a vision, a change to engage your employees towards a result, a metric you do not currently have.

We’ll be mapping out what you need to pack for the trip and what the route and destination looks like. Be sure you’re reading the right resource, as if you just want to know how to deal with the odd tricky person or perhaps just delegate better, click here.

Where’s your personal engagement with the team already?

A few questions to ask yourself…

If you were to ask your people to change their lunch break, type of milk in the fridge, or come to a company night out – something low key, what would happen? 

I ask as it’s valuable to reflect on what level of buy-in we already have with them. Something low-key is a good judge for this as the type of milk isn’t a make or break company necessity, it’s personal. It would be because YOU thought it was a good idea.

So how are your small level ideas or suggestions taken? How did your last small shake-up go down?

What might your behaviour be saying about your current vision and leadership?

Eg, if you’ve spent this week in endless meetings, ranted incessantly about the price of organic chicken, spent far too much time schmoozing clients and didn’t say good morning to anyone, what vision do they think you might have for the business? Your vision is already being communicated by your behaviour, actions and language, like it or not, so is it for the better?

Buy-in to any vision will not happen if people dislike or mistrust you.

Do you have any deeper problems, un-aired issues or such going on within your team? If disrespect or ill-feeling is present anywhere, it will likely severely hamper any efforts by you to change anything. If there are some MAJOR road blocks, be careful moving forward with change before they’re smoothed over.

To fire, or not to fire..?

When we have a vision for change, we will always either see this vision with or without certain people in it. And sometimes it’s just easier, and reasonable, to fire people than to spend the time and effort ‘dragging them’ towards an outcome. Anyone you feel HAS to go?

If you feel any thread of this right now, air it out. And do it soon. You may have to let people go as you implement, but if you’re already seeing that outcome, your judgement (and judgement of them) may be skewed. 

Be clear on why you want this.

Are we talking about a solid metric change, something lasting and substantial or something more passive? Sometimes the small changes we need to deal with masquerade in our minds as large scale projects because our ego has a need to deal with complexity. So is this grand vision really a grand vision?  Do you need wide spread employee engagement here or is it just that Phil badly gets on your nerves, you can’t stand him anymore. So now let’s create a massive shift to focus my obvious dislike for this guy and hopefully a situation where I can performance manage the bastard out?

Said with some jest, as I do. Be very aware if you relate to the theme though, as it’s more common than you may think. I have often seen seemingly large scale ideas floated around low and high levels with underlying low motives all too often.

Exercise – One slice of reality cake, please? (approx 45min)

Assuming longer term behavioural change is needed from your people towards a goal or target, first sum up your end game here in one sentence. What are you wanting to achieve? Not what do you have to change, what’s the result of these efforts? The point of putting in all this work – the outcome.

Literally, write it down.

Now read this sentence back outloud and ask yourself a few questions;

• Is this just your latest good idea or is it for the greater good? 

• Are you wanting to make your mark or is this shift actually company, market and tactically aligned to your growth curve? 

• Would it be a shareholder or stakeholder approved change?

• How would it impact client relations / close silos or resources? 

• Is ego driving this or business acumen? 

• How would your team, their capacity and workflow be impacted?

• What’s the biggest roadblock nobody has currently thought of?

• What part do you now, or could you play, in being more a part of the problem than a result?

• Pause and envision the end result, the day you hit the mark. What’s the first thought that goes through your mind? Again, write it down.

Review

Read over what you wrote, let it sink in.

Then I want you to try and put yourself in the shoes of 3 other people who’s opinion you value. Eg; Your closest friend, your best client and your Significant Other. What would they have to say about you in the vision you just described? Note – not your vision, or how you’ll get there, what would they say about YOU in the role of a leader taking people there?

Consider what might they say about your tolerance, patience, standards, or attitude.. If you’re feeling brave, go and ask them directly. No better feedback than that.

Hint – if their feedback indicates in any way that you have a self-serving motive, then be aware of your drivers for this project, they could be more egocentric than you realise.

You may have great answers though for all of this though and are now wondering – “I thought this was a guide to get other people onboard, not make me doubt myself? WTF are you waffling on about Paul?”

The reason I am covering off on seemingly obvious bases isn’t to question your target or methods. It’s for you to be able to gauge how you’re reacting to having to think through an idea you have probably already signed off as a good one. 

Progressive, lasting change has zero space for purely egocentric drivers. So if there are any strong emotive threads that have been pulled as a result of this first exercise and part of this article, then I’d stop and address them NOW. House on sand. I won’t be the last to poke holes in you or your ideas and I’m not even using a sharp stick. Right now we’re only taking some perspective on a journey, not choosing our seats and baggage allowance. Talk through any initial concerns with your coach and mentor.

What does buy-in for engagement take? 

You’ll need resources.

Which starts with a very high quality network. You will not survive this alone or processing it all in your own head. If you don’t have friends in similar positions, contacts that have done this before, a decent mentor or coach and others that you can talk shit with – find them, and find them FAST. 

Hypocrisy – take 1 pill before bed with water.

People’s behaviour isn’t logical and to even understand it, let alone shape it, a qualified perspective from as many angles as possible is essential for success. For you to hit a target, people will need to behave in certain ways and their standards underpin those behaviours. So it’s firstly important to appreciate the differences between behaviours and standards and how they play out.

What’s the difference?

For instance, if a sales team’s target is to increase conversion by 15%, one behaviour needed might be to ask higher quality questions of prospects. A standard that reflects that might be that each salesperson will hold the standard of ensuring they listen for at least 3 core drivers from a prospect before asking any closing questions.

A behaviour is a generalised set of actions, a standard is a quantifiable component.

The reason it’s important to appreciate the difference here is because if there’s no personal buy-in to you from your team, you’re royally fucked. And your standards and behaviours dictate the lions share of opinion about you and the resultant quality of somebody’s action. To fully appreciate how we are taken by our people requires some work and this needs to happen before we ask them to do ANYTHING drastic or different. Best explained through exercise.

Exercise – Awareness of Behaviours and Standards (approx 45mins)

Imagine your end game here, the day you and your team have reached your target. Firstly, your people – write down the #1 top behaviour that has been most critical from your team to adopt to get this result. Now write down the main standard they had to adopt to get this outcome. Reference the sales team example above if the format is still fuzzy.

Now, keeping the end game vision in your mind still, think about the type of leader you are at the end of the race. What was your top behaviour and standard you had to adopt to get this result?

Lastly, write down just your most notable (read disliked) professional behaviour over the past 72 hours and the standard that you believe underpins it. This is the type of question is best asked in a live conversation, but give it a shot. This usually reveals your weakest attribute that you’re aware of. The type of behaviour that deep down you know has the power to shatter this project.

What we’re looking for here, are the gaps.

Eg;

• The inconsistencies between the leader you’ll have to be to get this project done and where you are now.

• The gaps between your current worst standards being practiced now and what you will be expecting of others. 

Focus this on you, not your people. Try to see the inconsistencies. The reason I’m not bringing your team into too sharp a focus, is because we can’t control that variable. Influence, sure. But you only have control over yourself, and we need to make sure the holes in your ship are plugged first.

If you don’t identify and remedy the core gaps in your style, the tools to fix them will elude you. There’s also the very real danger of you expecting standards from others you yourself aren’t yourself practicing. The people you’re going to lead will have X-ray vision of every single loophole and double standard you have, whether you can see them or not. Nobody buys-in to people they can see right through.

Don’t believe me? Go and argue with a child over when they can have chocolate ice-cream and then tell me people aren’t naturally good at finding loopholes.

Exercise – Plugging holes in your own standards (approx 30mins)

No matter who you’re trying to lead, people are funny bastards. We’re inconsistent, emotional and well, really rather messy. But in a group dynamic, these traits play out as a chorus. It’s known as herd mentality. This tribal mindset is a very real thing and unfortunately, it has the effect of amplifying a very powerful truth which is the core point of this exercise.

Our people will, by the large, only ever be a reflection of their leaders lowest standard. 

Not our highest, our lowest. Just because you stay at work till 10pm most nights believing it’s admirable will count for nothing if you don’t give a rats arse about people before 5pm. 

Buy-in to your vision is personal and cannot happen without buy-in to you. And if you’re practicing contradictory or lower standards to what you expect, expect problems. 

So what standards do you have now that are landmines for this project?

Hopefully your brain is churning a bit. Below is a reflective list of questions covering a few of the most common areas leaders often have lower standards than they realise. Do any of them ring a bell?

I know this is a bit dark guys, but engaging people well is about integrity and truth most of all. The more genuine you are, the more accepting of the faults in yourself, the greater the buy-in and commitment will be from others.

Also, nobody buys into bullshit. So…

• Do people say you often communicate effectively?

• How are you being held accountable for your actions?

• What are your public beliefs about your team?

• Do you have and portray confidence in your own judgement?

• Do you seek feedback or avoid it?

• Are you inconsistent?

• Do you often blame or pass the buck?

• Do you have ongoing accountability to anyone else, or does that not apply to you?

• Your go-to. Do you go to ‘how to’ mode, or ‘how can I help others work this out’ mode when a problem strikes? Careful if it’s the former, you run the risk of getting buried. How are you delegating?

• How do you do in an argument? Do you get defensive, blame, or own it? Do you stand your ground?

• How are you on your personal development metrics? Do you over-commit, make excuses? What are your personal standards around change?

There might be a few or similar ones you relate to here, but you’ll know by now where your big one is. That thing you say or do consistently that stands to derail this project. There may be a few, and that’s ok. The point here is not to bring you down, it’s to figure out where our ship is leaking so that we can plug each hole and don’t take down the crew with us.

Review this with your coach or mentor. To process in your own head is asking for trouble. Sometimes this can be a quick exercise, other times it takes real, and lasting work. Give it the space it needs if you want the best results. My best advice though, is that however long your list of ‘fixes’ is, tackle them one at a time.

Let’s now address some more external, higher level considerations for employee engagement.

How do I lead this change?

Critical considerations

This will mean holding every standard… Having skin in the game, rolling your sleeves up. That doesn’t mean doing the same work of course, it means being fully invested.

There’s a few things to accept at this point. Whether you inherited this team and project, badly built it, tripped over it, saved it from ruin or won it on a game show, the outcome is the same. The results are 100% your responsibility. Which means a lot, but I mention this list below to make sure you’re ok to own the juicy parts of it as well.

People’s choices are not your responsibility, only their results. 

Each person chooses their own actions, so it’s never going to be your place to control what someone else does. Ever. All you can do is lead. And leading is not dragging.

How does that sit? 

This could bring up the ‘micromanager gene’ that some people really struggle with. If it’s a strong driver for you, then have a read over this article here as it may help you get past it. You won’t get a result breathing down people’s necks.

How well do you know your key talent? 

You can’t effectively lead people or get them engaged if you don’t know anything about them. Think of a leader you’ve had in the past that tried to make you believe in something, when you thought they were a twat. Didn’t work, did it?

Pick 3 random members of your team and see if you could write an online dating profile for them. If not, you may not know them as well as you think. To bust a myth here, you don’t need to be someone’s ‘bestie’ to lead them. But you will need their respect and respect isn’t bestowed. Think about someone in your world that you feel cares about you. What do they do or say that ensures you feel respected?

If you think you don’t really know someone very well, you’re right.

Targeted feedback and performance checks, starting with you.

How are you on others giving you feedback on your performance as well as you learning new ways to hold them accountable to theirs? Might sounds obvious, but without feedback and review of a journey, we’ve no idea how far we’ve come. And that applies to you first and foremost. If you and I were talking and I asked you to describe your KPI’s or explain why you think you’re worth employing to lead this change, how would you answer?

Ideally there’s buy-in to more people than just you. 

Who else is an authority in your group people already respect? This can be a very easy win. Once you have an influencer on side, they can generate a bit of easy early buy-in if they’re on side with you. It’ll never last, but can be a nice push. Equally, if the group has an Alpha that’s against you, this will take you longer.

Don’t push this like a new product. 

Getting buy-in isn’t about selling an idea. It’s about having one you believe in and through its merit and your standards, (both being communicated well) other people choosing to follow you. DO NOT come across like this guy..

If you feel the need to convince people of how important the target is, then one or all of these can be playing out…

• Your vision is totally irrelevant to the company as a whole
• You’ve phrased it so badly that nobody has the foggiest idea what you’re talking out
• It’s all about you and that’s blazingly obvious
• What you’ve said makes zero commercial sense
• It’s delivered unconfidently
• You’ve made assumptions and statements that prove you have minimal connection with your team

If you’re ever feeling the need to sell this like a used car discount weekend, STOP and review where you went wrong.

Active involvement and improvement from the people you want to buy-in. 

High-level employee engagement will take time and is where your real leadership talents come into play. People buying into an idea is one thing, once they realise where their talent gaps are, they will need help. It’s easy for you to ruin a family trip to Disneyland spending the first 3 days being balls-mad at someone for forgetting to pack the sunscreen. Are you prepared to overlook trivialities for the bigger picture?

Being mad is one thing, how you deal with it, is another. Where do you tend to sit when things go wrong?

Rock solid communication. 

Without certainty of approach, clarity in direction, a powerful reason and brief, this is going down like a Led Zeppelin. Would others say you present and communicate clearly at least?

Hard ball.

Are you prepared to work with people around group and personal targets and invest yourself fully in their success as well as move them on if they won’t play ball? 

The reality is, not everyone will buy into you no matter how well you nail it. Sometimes where you want to go just won’t gel with them to the point it’ll become obvious to everyone. 

As a leader, we need to remember that although our team are important, this is a business. The business has made the decision to sail to this new land and although someone might be a valued sailor, if they won’t row, there’s no rations or rum for them.

Tools and tech.

Do you have or can you build any of the infrastructure to ensure this vision comes to life? Nothing worse than spending time planning a holiday to find out all the flights are sold-out. Is your toolkit solid?

Awareness of Capacity.

Employee engagement and buy-in requires nurturing. This isn’t a quick fix. You’ll need at least 15 mins a week where you can get people together either digitally or personally to keep momentum on this project. More like an hour at the start until you all find your groove.

This will take time, focus and will drink personal resources from your sanity bank. Do you and your team have any capacity to take on a new project, no matter how small? If not, then check out my article on delegation, here. It might be useful if you’re already burning out…

Focused and targeted growth sessions work. But sheer numbers can overwhelm these efforts. You can have multiple teams engaged, but make sure that no one team has more than 7 people plus you in it. It’s a long known dynamic in leadership that any more than this makes most leaders completely ineffective.

The finish line

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. ANY project needs to be quantified as a metric as without data to know when it’s complete, you’re asking, no begging, for inconsistency and a tirade of problems. If you want your employees engaged, why? To what end? What’s the point of it? Any movement around change needs a reason and in business you also need a metric.

For instance, a tangible goal IS NOT any of these;

The difference is, with the latter you have an X to Y by when variable in play. We all know what the goal is and how long we have to hit it. Without this frame, your project or change is going to struggle. Hard. Try watching a race without knowing the running order, or a football game with no scoreboard. It’s demoralising and bloody boring.

Buy-in, gone. Without a clear metric to quantify the result and progress towards change, people will tune-out very quickly.

Clarity

You need to get this idea so simple and clear in your head you can sum it up so a 6 year old could grasp it. If you can’t, it’s probably too complex for any level of emotive buy-in from anyone else. Complexity creates doubt, people lose focus and can even completely misread what you’re saying. If it’s an apple, call it an apple. Not say that you want to talk about fruit for 15mins for “context”.

We’ve done a fair amount of work so far, not all of it easy. If you’ve put the time in to get this far, right now you’re probably aware of areas where you and your team are strong, and others where you’re weak. Both are ok. You don’t need to be perfect to start a new project or to reach a new target. Awareness of state is the first step.

Honesty

You will need to be honest with your team and yourself about where you feel you might slip up and why, but more importantly, actively and purposefully work on your shortcomings and during the process, help them work on theirs. Any change is not easy or an overnight fix. It takes time, clarity and an enormous amount of effort.

However, it is one of the most rewarding challenges a leader can embrace.

So far, this article has been an exercise in perspective. I’ve aimed to help you see the human equation from different angles. But I will say again –  please, please, please talk this all through with your coach and mentor and do get guidance from others. It’s so much easier to gain clarity when you vocalise, especially when so much of it is about you.

If you feel like this though, I totally relate…

Air out the areas you feel are troublesome and most importantly, allow some time for the reflective part of the process. Looking in the mirror requires a level of humility and bravery, so I suggest recognising where you know you’re strong as well as where there’s work to do. None of us are broken, guys. Every instrument just needs tuning occasionally.

Exercise – Leadership Health Check (approx 30mins)

Re-inventing the wheel isn’t necessary. This exercise is about starting you moving towards better leadership habits.

Find an example of the type of leadership you admire, one that got results. An event, incident or situation where someone acted and spoke in a way that inspired others to lasting action. Write down what you believe is the main behaviour the leader employed that underpinned the result?

There were likely many, but what’s the big one?

Once you have that, I want you to reflect on a time in your past where you’ve had poor results leading people. Was there a theme to the behaviours you displayed you know sabotaged the results? What’s the MAIN BIG difference between the leader you admire and you?

Often, the things we admire in others are the traits we wish we had ourselves.

Consider your new planned change again and the reason you’re reading an article on employee engagement. If you could change one behaviour to move away from what you’ve done before that DIDN’T work, and more towards what you’ve seen that DID work for that other leader, what would that ONE behaviour be?

For perspective on this, consider discussion with your coach, mentor and network. Don’t discount your friend circle either, often others can see traits in us we’re all but blind to.

How do I implement this change?

Initial considerations

***Delegate the entire thing to someone who’s better placed than you***

I wouldn’t be much of an Executive Coach if I didn’t ask you why this process isn’t being delegated. The first question any leader has to ask of themselves is – why am I doing this? Followed shortly after by, am I the best person to do it?

Are you? 

Is there someone else that already has these people engaged and is able to achieve the ends already? Does the team already trust them and are they better placed in either the short or long game to do this better than you?

Do you need professional development or to hire someone who can already do this quicker, cheaper, more effectively? Transformational leadership resting on employee engagement is a skillset. If you don’t have it and don’t want to develop it, outsource it and save yourself the pain. If you do have it, are there parts that lend themselves to those with better or more suited talents than you?

Don’t be afraid to split this up if it serves the greater good. If you struggle delegating, or would sharpen your technique, check out another article here.

A HUGE component of buy-in and employee engagement is delegation and that requires trust, both to be built in, and extended by, you. How can you make that as much a part of this project as the project itself?

Get clarity on the goal you’re looking to achieve and your why (personal)

This means a metric with a reason. As I touched on above, clarity on the target metric is important, but work on how you’d express why this matters to you so much. Write down your top 3 reasons, and if you can guess what I’m going to say next, extra brownie points.

Yup, you guessed it! – Are these reasons all about you?

This can again throw up areas where your ego might be getting in the way. It’s perfectly ok to have selfish drivers for your own ends, but if there’s no other ingredients in this cake, it’s not going to bake very well and nobody is going to rally when you want an audience to blow out the candles. But however this is being administered, here’s one way you can roll it out that I’ve seen work many, many times and it’s kinda fun too.

Scope the landscape

Float the concept (not the process) 

Take a bit of time in the lunchroom, at the odd meeting, in passing. When the conversation naturally allows for it, ask people what they think a good new target could be based around the type of change you’re envisioning. Note, don’t ask them HOW you could achieve something or WHAT needs to change. That reflects a process focus and has too many rabbit holes. Ask them what a good target or end result could be.

This serves well to plant a few seeds and will also show that you’re not rushing an idea. 

Also, sometimes other people have MUCH better ideas than we do. In the very least they will 100% have a different perspective.

Keep it real

Keep ‘floating’ for a bit over a short period of time. Let the initial feedback sit in your head. Sleep on it, a few times. Write it out. Discuss it with your network. Later, when either asked directly or when the conversation allows for it, probe people one by one as to what they think of the type of change you’re envisioning. Employee engagement doesn’t happen like clockwork. Nobody takes a pill and feels better about an idea. It has to be nurtured for any lasting effect.

Share the feedback in conversation if it feels right to do so and you could start to fish a little deeper.

• Anyone keen to take on a leadership role in this?

• Do they feel they could get behind it if rolled out well? 

• What would completely bugger the end result? 

• What would make it a total fuck-up of an idea before it even started?

• How might our day-to-day be impacted for better or worse once we reach target?

Keep this phase real and casual. It’s commercial spit-balling. Let them know you’re collecting info and ideas from people to scope a concept. At the same time try to gauge their current buy-in to you by how they responded to even being asked about helping you make changes. This is a far more important point to pay attention to.

What to listen for…

This floating process can take as short or long as you feel is right, the important things to note are;

• Did anyone have any other amazing ideas?

• What was their attitude towards ANY change?

• Are the majority already engaged in another venture or strongly with another leader or team member? Are you treading on toes?

• What did they see as blockages to this / can they be overcome?

• Were they really open to you leading or asking about this?

• Did they have cast iron objections that were really, irritatingly valid?

After this phase, how confident are you in your idea? Does it need a rethink, or are we good to go?

In other words, do you have the “first date vibe that you can kiss someone goodnight” or will you get a drink thrown in your face for trying?

Meeting #1 – Dress Rehearsal

Ready for the spotlight?

If you’re going for it, hold a meeting to introduce the concept based on the info and feedback you’ve had to date. Keep the introduction very short, your reasoning clear and outcome painfully obvious. 2 mins of you talking, AT MOST. Make the data VERY light, any pitch deck style presentation faster than a politicians’ objections. You’re gauging initial buy-in here, not demonstrating financial viability or complex reasoning. 

As a rule, if you couldn’t get a 6 year old to grasp the concept, you’re probably over-complicating it.

As soon as you can stop speaking, do so, and open the floor for feedback.

Here’s where your most valuable data is gained. LISTEN TO IT. You may not get what you want to hear, or you might. The choice you have control over is to actively and deeply listen, even if you feel like losing it.

Try to gauge how people leave the meeting and pay attention not so much what they said verbally, but what did their body language and tone tell you? Look for those leaning forward or rolling their eyes. Remember, most of the way people communicate is NON-verbal. How motivated or engaged did you feel they were?

Review this feedback with your network.

Meeting #2 – The ‘shall we do this’ moment?

Open floor for feedback about the entire concept, and yourself to lead it. In here, repeat a team designed version of the “a slice of reality cake, please” section above.

A lot can change in the time from then to now. Review it to make sure you all don’t have shiny thing syndrome going on. By now, you’re probably getting an idea of how engaged people are becoming, or not. A common trap is to assume attendance and compliance in creation = buy-in. It doesn’t. Read between the lines.

End the meeting by opening the floor for official and confidential feedback on the concept within a window to you either in person or by email. I usually go with 72 hours, but keep it timely. However you introduce it, make sure people know that this is their chance to speak up. 

After that time, let them know this project has the Green Light.

Are your Alpha’s onboard? 

Do a quick check to see if the big dogs are wanting to play with you. If not, spend a bit of time with them and gauge what their objections are based on. Do this with anyone who has concerns, but more so with those that you know can sway opinion. Getting any team engaged is an exercise is psychology and tribal dynamics. Often the point of leverage is closely guarded by that one person all others respect.

Review this feedback with your coach or mentor.

Meeting #3 – One more time, with feeling.

Here, you’re going to do two things. First, agree on what the lag measure is for your project. (If not fully conversant with lead and lag measures, click here). Also, the concept I’m going to introduce here is drawing on 4DX concepts. If you’ve never studied them, I highly recommend it. Few models of metric driven employee engagement exist that even compare. It’s not the only way to get engagement, but I’ve yet to find one that keeps it in play over time any better.

I’ve simplified aspects of it to keep this article under the length of JK’s next instalment of magical schooling options.

Your lag measure needs to be a single metric. A way of bringing your now group vision down to a measurable figure. A finish line. Some examples I gave before, but remember this project needs to have an end-point and a time frame. Don’t rush this, spend the time to make sure your lag measures adheres to these key variables.

• Aligns with company growth
• Can be heavily influenced by your team
• Can be measured
• Would have the leverage to lift all prospects and quality of working life

In other words, it’s got to be something tangible, influenceable and people need to be able to see the greater good in it. 

Avoid temptation

The BIG temptation here is to have several targets. Don’t. You need to be ok and even excited at the prospect of not trying to do too much at once. Quality over quantity. Start this simple and once you’re a year or two in, consider enhancing upping complexity once the cultural buy-in and real world practice has been adopted.

Once you’ve got the target established, people will rush into ‘how to’ mode, if not there already. That’s not ideal. Let the conversation flow, but ‘how to’ chats run forever and always have many layers. Don’t let this meeting run for ages, stick to your time. We’re here to agree on the outcome, NOT the process.

The second thing to agree here is the regularity and time-slot for your meetings about this project. Ideally, this is weekly for around 15mins and involves everyone who’s included (remember, try not to have more than 6 or 7 people in any one team). These meetings can be digital of course, but in–person is better for accountability. It will also keep motivation and a greater sense of teamwork in play.

What’s the first REAL step?

If you’ve gotten to this point, well done. Here’s how we roll and you’ll soon see why engagement is the key here, not what you’re doing, but how engaged your people are with you leading them to do it.

Target Meeting Agenda

Stick to 45mins MAX for first 3, eventually this will be less than 15mins, but flow takes practice. Give yourself bedding-in time.

Meeting # 1 – Lag measure scoreboard designed

Have your team design a scoreboard; a simple, easy to digest readout of progress towards the lag measure, ideally live in real time. If it takes more than 3 seconds to understand, it’s too complex. But it needs to show total progress towards your goal.

Note on the design for the scoreboard – We need SIMPLICITY above all else. Have your team build the board (this helps with the employee engagement angle), it can be analogue or digital. But the important thing is that if a 6 year old looked at it, could they understand it? If not, you’re probably over complicating it.

We’re shooting for the style to be simple and easy to comprehend, such as…

NOT looking anything like this…

Once you’ve got a way to track the lag measure and your team has designed the board to reflect it, you’re getting somewhere. If you have free time, begin to entertain the “how” do we get there questions. Explore a few ideas and use questions yourself to keep the conversation flowing. Remember, this is about employee engagement which DOES NOT equal you doing all the work or talking.

Before the next meeting ask for suggestions now on what lead measure you need to focus on to move the lag and suggestions for how to track it. Be careful here as the lead measure needs to conform to 3 things. It MUST be;

• Predictive of moving the needle on the lag measure
• Something than can be measured and tracked weekly
• Something that is uniquely in a person’s full control

Note how the lag reflects the overall team effort, but the lead is reflective of each persons unique contribution to a small effort that influences it. This is where personal accountability and a small team of no more than 7 becomes necessary. We are all wired to want to define our relationship within our “tribe” and 6 other people’s efforts both highlight our successes and failures far more clearly than a large group.

There’s nowhere to hide.

However, finding and agreeing on the lead is where a LOT of people struggle, so don’t be surprised if your team is the same. I’ve spent weeks coaching leaders through effective lead measures. There’s a LOT of things people can do differently, but you have to narrow it down to one, two at the most that you will measure and track. Otherwise, the game gets too complex, interest wanes and it’s all over.

Take an example of a sales team. They might have a lag measure of +$1m in sales revenue over a year. Not a tough one.

The lead measure?

This one’s not so easy.

There’s a lot of things sales people have to do well to get the end result. Most commonly though, the lead measure is something really basic – such as how many times in a day did they pick up the phone to a cold contact? Think about it.

If someone makes 100 calls a day, are they as likely to hit their target over someone that makes 20? Maybe, but doubtful. Also, does this metric fit the criteria from above? Is it?

• Predictive of moving the needle on the lag measure?
• Something than can be measured and tracked weekly?
• Something that is uniquely in a person’s full control?

Yup, checked off.

Something that would make a terrible lead measure might be how many times a person has to sell product A over product B. That’s not as good as the clients might not want product A for a variety of reasons, there could be stock issues, price point problems. So the salesperson could try SO HARD, but get nowhere. They’re not the master variable in the game, creating an imbalance. But picking up the phone? They can all do that.

The lead must be something EACH PERSON can control, influence and be held personally accountable for.

Meeting # 2 – Lead measure health-check

Flesh this out in open dialogue and make sure you’re tracking and actioning something that fits the brief. This may take a while and don’t be surprised if you get stuck here. Again, discuss this openly with your coach and mentor. If you feel you’ve got it, then have your team build a second scoreboard to track it. This time, we’ll need to be able to measure everyone’s personal contribution to the lead variable.

Remember, the LAG board needs to shows master progress between X to Y in a timeframe.

The LEAD board needs to show each persons contribution on a single thing that week. This creates personal and self-accountability.

Two boards summing up a WORLD of effort. This is how it can play out…

For instance, a manufacturing firm wants to maximise production. They might have a LAG measure of an overall increase in output of 30% over 6 months. Their LEAD measure is for the production workers to perform 3 maintenance checks per worker, per shift on different machines.

No matter what gets in the way, this measure has the highest chance of ensuring the machines keep running. Without it, supply lines, stock levels and many other variables, although important, count for nothing. Now whilst serviced machines won’t guarantee production output, it’s the biggest variable currently under the control of the people involved in the exercise.

With all this in mind, design a scoreboard to track each persons weekly contributions to the lead measure. When designing this board, much as we did for the LAG, KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Meeting # 3 – First meeting with both scoreboards

You now have the lead and lag measure visible in front of the “players”. Show time.

Here you layout the format for the meetings going forward and the format is exactly the same every time. When your team meet…

• First, update the lag measure and give a quick overall update. 

• Then, for each person in the room, they will need to contribute 3 things when asked by the leader. What they said they would do last week, what they did do and what they’ll do this week coming to hit their lead measure. Example;

• “Last week Mary, you said you would do XYZ to help our lead measure, how did you get on?”

• “Ok, add your results to the lead metric scoreboard” (notice they do this themselves)

• “Nice, what are you going to do this week for your contribution to the lead measure?”

That’s it.

You can give feedback, praise, help, all sorts in this environment, but keep it clean and focused. NO CONVERSATION about other topics, only this project. If Dave from accounts needs to chat about a problem with something, do so afterwards.

Notice the themes

• People are bringing their own figures
• Setting their own targets
• Being held publicly accountable for the results they said they would achieve
• Setting their own target for what they’re going to do this week to contribute

And they’re all doing it around the leverage points that have the highest chance of reaching the lag target. This cadence of self accountability and chosen engagement is key. Encourage it. Own it. Work with your people to develop it. True engagement WILL NOT happen unless people feel you are a part of the journey with them, not simply overseeing or micromanaging it.

It may also seem grossly simplistic and you might be thinking – “I can’t run with this at C level”. You can. I promise you. The context changes, but the principals of focus and leverage are time tested.

Also notice the power in holding a meeting weekly just for this topic. This way you’re setting the standard that it matters. You’re giving your time. So are they. As a group you are pulling this meeting out of the maelstrom of day-to-day and giving it priority. Which brings me to a VERY important point..

IF YOU DROP YOUR STANDARDS, IT’S ALL OVER.

We all lose focus occasionally, have bad days. It’s not unreasonable to expect your engagement to wane sometimes. Expect this, and plan for it.

This meeting, the accountability and focus it creates CANNOT be skipped over. Setup key people and fall-back options to run it. This HAS TO HAVE PRIORITY #1. As soon as you set the example that you can skip it, the morale and employee engagement that you’ve spent so hard to build starts to crumble. It becomes another good idea, another one of your “good intentions”.

Set the standard of importance you expect others to give this in your actions, otherwise, they won’t.

This journey creates the need for a better leader.

They will need you and you will need to set the example and the standards to help everyone get there. Focus like this also creates something else, far beyond the metrics and the ROI. It has the potential to bring people together as something more than themselves. To create a goal with a measurable, live, reactive and evolving plan can hugely impact and strengthen the team dynamic, improve communication and resource management.

Take this slow, keep your intent and focus where it needs to be and ALWAYS ensure you have a mentor or a coach to keep your head in check. Without that, things can get a lot harder to see clearly. I’ve covered the bones here, but every operation has nuances and each leader has strengths and weaknesses to be addressed to pull of this type of project successfully.

Some friendly reminders

Wonder why I played the hypocrite line early on now?

There really is nowhere to hide with this, especially for you.

Embrace the curve

Every project, every person has a performance curve. Things may need adjusting as you go. Staying agile as a leader is essential.

Small changes

Don’t be afraid to adjust the lead measure to suit over time, it may need to. But be VERY careful moving the larger goal post that is your lag. This can cause instant problems. Get the win and celebrate it. Nobody wants to feel like a game is unwinnable. They’ll stop playing.

It all starts with you

Be aware of your standards around attitude and self management because if you drop the ball, let your standards slide, it’s all over. What do you need to do to keep your fuel and mental headspace healthy? What standard are you going to set to others and to yourself about how you value your health and time during a change like this?

Watch for drop-offs and high performance burnout

Creating the journey creates the burden of performance and because of that, people will tire. Growth like this is a fire that needs to be stoked or it’ll burn out. Keep a personal eye on each member of your team. Mentor them through the change and the changes they need to make.

Life is always more than a work project too, however important it is. You have people working for you here, never forget that.

Delegate as you go

This type of approach is a living project, work to empower others to teach, guide and fix the fuck-ups. The end metric will eventually be completely secondary to the development and cultural change that will happen.

Your network

Improve the quality and frequency of the people you speak to about this. As you grow your team and explore this vision, some people will naturally need to fall away as they won’t be able to help you any more. Don’t ever be afraid to trim your network and free up your mental bandwidth to keep those that add value close-by.

The thing I’ll leave you with is that this process is incredibly far reaching.

The meeting, the targets, the work here is all great. But there’s a greater game being played, one of people coming together in the middle of commercial insanity for a common goal with your guidance. This can be a great deal of fun and form lasting connections and respect when it’s handled well, genuinely and always – to a very high standard.

Thank you for reading!

Paul

Paul Charter is a specialty CEO coach helping leaders reach target metrics by mastering self-awareness and interpersonal communication.

You can read about Paul here, or connect with him here.