How Engaged managers can increase employee engagement?
Howel defined leadership as a process used by an individual to influence group members to motivate them to move toward the achievement of group goals. This highlights the significant role of managers in organizational success or failure as a social phenomenon beyond culture, nationality, race, or religion.
Within a working context, there are three main interrelated parameters: The manager who has the most influence; A group of workers and followers, and their objective and the method toward reaching that which is vision.
The effect of managers behavior on their employees
Managers’ behavioral pattern influences the employees and its effect reflects in employees’ motivations, attitude, and expectations. These patterns are categorized into 5 main disciplines including being direct in assigning tasks, involving employees in making decisions and asking for their opinions, providing rewards and punishments, as well as showing considerations and concern for employees’ requirements and feelings.
It should be noted that self-development and personal growth of the managers has s great influence in executing each pattern effectively in working culture.
Self-awareness makes you a better manager
Personal development is entangled with self-awareness. To explain the importance of self- awareness first we go through leadership theories especially visionary theory where the importance of employee-employer relation in employee engagement and motivation is highlighted. It is further explained that engaged managers possess certain personal attributes (e.g. self-awakened) and they are conscious in communicating with employees (e.g. emotional intelligence).
Engaged Managers in a team-oriented setting
The newly developed theories not only cover the charismatic and visionary aspects of management and leadership but also consider manager and personnel relationships.
Charismatic leadership theory focuses on the personal identification of the followers with the leadership. To maintain this charismatic identity this group relies on techniques like exemplification and self- promotion. In this theory, the interaction between leaders and followers is missed.
On the other hand, visionary leadership maintains organizational control through socialization and sharing. This theory is more applicable in team-working where managers should converge the team task and take risks.
Engaged managers in a team-oriented setting can accurately link the actions to a higher-order objective and organizational goals. They can predict future states and manage unforeseen conditions. They learn their employees’ characteristics and help them pursue opportunities to optimize their performance and overcome perceived risks comfortably.
Visionary Managers inspire their employees through effective and communicative styles of influence. It depends on how skillful they are to enhance employees’ performance. Leaders’ expectations are delivered through communication besides defining meaning and challenge to the employee for motivation and inspiration. In this manner, the whole team is oriented to its organizational objective and the manager obtains a feeling of trust and loyalty from employers.
Personal development effect for engaging managers
Awakened managers
Visionary leaders need to be wakened before taking any action plan. Awakening associates with flexibility, the capacity to change a life. It is not acquired through high education or generational inheritance. Thinking, observing, experiencing, and living develops wakefulness. It relates to the courage of turning away from certain habits and people. It engages with emotional intelligence where one suffers from losses or failures but wins at the same time.
Pierce and Newstream explain in their book ‘The leaders and leadership process’ that managers are capable of taking an ambiguous situation and framing it in a meaningful and acceptable way for employees. This is due to the current trend of globalization and increased exposure of human beings from all viewpoints and interacting methods. Awakened managers scrutinize the purpose of their plans and their associated consequences in advance and determine their benefits. They expand their vision and consider the possible harms or benefits that their action will bring to the environment.
Emotionally Intelligent Engaged Managers
Our attitude and emotional reactions are usually under subconscious control where the brain runs on autopilot and we are not directly in charge. But in the realm of management and leadership, self-awareness and consciousness are critical.
Engaged management not only requires being harmonized and aware of one’s emotion but also being about strategy, vision, and powerful ideas. Conscious leadership leads to an environment where employees engage easily and decisions are made from a conscious perspective, oriented with the team and organizational goal.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the key to engaged management. EI helps employees and employers to perceive and analyze their emotions and reactions and enlightens what is going on in between. In such a conscious environment employee-employer communication and response are optimized and staff performance is efficient and effective.
It is been proved that management effectiveness has a direct relation to emotional intelligence (EI). Those with high EI are conscious of their negative emotions (like sadness, anger) and these emotions do not impact their decisions.
Moreover, to enhance both manager’s and employee’s engagement, present-time engagement is fundamental. Empathy stems from self-awareness and without that influence is not possible. Handling employees’ emotional reactions and conduct them toward the desired outcome is the managers’ influence.
On the other hand, consciousness avoids bias and partial decision makings. Diversity in the workplace is an evident result due to subconscious and hidden beliefs. Partial views lead to deliberate employment or unemployment of special race, gender, religion, or sexuality. Yet greater inclusion in the workplace to value differences drive higher engagement level and optimized performance as well as supporting the organizational achievements.
Manage your people with your heart
In conclusion, those managers who lead by heart have more emotional influence over their team. In other words, management is a process of influence where a manager can stimulate the employee accepting challenges and taking risks and even improving their performance by helping them being creative in finding solutions. Comprehension over emotion and sensation in the workplace directly affects business results and retention rates, moreover, indirectly affects morale, motivation, and commitment.
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