[August 12, 2015] If there is a single mistake that I can point to that junior leaders frequently make is that they fail to provide the necessary leadership engagement required of them. Ask any person in a senior position and they will tell you that communication is crucial for success yet consistently wherever I went, I found leaders who failed to engage everyone who mattered. This was the case because engagement is more than just good communication.
In one of my assignments in the U.S. Army, I found upon my arrival at the headquarters a civilian staff that struggled to achieve simple mission objectives, suffered from low morale and competence, and fought persistently against one another. Accusations of fraud, waste, and abuse were common, formal investigations were a weapon used by all, and the lack of trust was clearly evident wherever I went. It was difficult to discover the primary cause why this existed but, after much study, we discovered that it was a lack of necessary key leadership engagement that was the fundamental problem.
Junior leaders were not talking to those who worked for them and people avoided discussing problems without acrimony; all of which lead to exclusive groups competing against one another. Teamwork was nonexistent. And, it was difficult to find the truth of what went on because of the falsification of records, destruction of key documents, and a rudderless senior civilian head. Obviously, performance suffered greatly. The military staffs were the only ones holding the unit headquarters together and only engaged the civilians under duress.
We all knew that leadership engagement was paramount to an effective organization. But its one thing to know it and practice it, but it’s another thing to break it down into basic building blocks so that it can be rebuilt piece by piece. That is what we did and it took months of hard work to get things back on the right track. We found these leadership skills increased the engagement of leaders and employees. Here are the elements that increased leadership engagement:
- Clear, Concise Communications: The staffs simply did not talk with one another and had built up social barriers. Talking, writing, speeches, counselings, classroom interaction were difficult but nonetheless necessary for leader engagement to restart properly.
- Building trust and confidence: Senior leaders began by trusting everyone and slowly demonstrated yet unconditionally because people have to be trustworthy for the organization to be effective.
- Team development: The lack of teamwork meant lower performance. This meant that each staff section, both civilian and military working in concert, were clear on their mission-related tasks and were held accountable for their work.
- Teaching, Coaching, and Mentoring: The link between the lowest level employee and junior leaders had evaporated; along with respect for one another. We began the process with feedback from surveys, group meetings, and one-on-one mandated and supervised counseling sessions.
- Core Values, Vision, and Strategy: Everyone re-educated on the purpose of their mission and how to achieve it. This took the entire leadership team to refocus their efforts. The priorities were reworked to be “taking care of employees and meeting mission goals.”
- Inclusiveness and Respect: When you feel that you are no longer part of the team, it’s easy to deviate from basic standards of behavior. Using education and coaching to change the attitudes of many working there. Some folks had their employment terminated but the majority understood and began working together.
We learned that leadership engagement is not effective if one of these elements is missing. We also learned that the very first thing we had to do was to build trust in the leadership team. These elements will not work without senior leaders being on the same page as those junior to them. It takes time and patience to make it work.
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