This is the second step, chapter, in my next book on employee engagement. It's titled: Now Engage Your Team. ( October, 2015). The first step is Close and Open, Open and Close.
It's a sequel to my earlier book: First, Engage Yourself which you can buy as a PDF at Contact Center Pipeline.
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“And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” 1
I was five years old and probably playing outside when President John F. Kennedy spoke those words during his inaugural speech on January 10, 1961. Since that day his words have inspired millions.
You can do the same with your team. No? What if you told them:
“I’m no longer going to ask you what you can do for our team. Instead, I’m going to ask you to tell me what more I can do for you, each of you, and our team.
“What chronic problem can I correct, remove or minimize for you?
“What tools can I provide you? Is it equipment or software, processing speeds or double monitors, furniture or lighting?
“What training do you need?
“Do we need to meet more or less often? What can I do to improve our meetings?
“What can I do, we do, to help tear down silos?”
Employee engagement is a conversation. Questions are wonderful conversation starters. Questions put your audience first. They show that you care enough to ask, that you respect and trust their opinion, and that you’re willing to invest your time to listen to their answers. Time is the most precious resource and you’re investing that resource to engage in a conversation with that person.
Change happens too fast and furious now for you to be the expert in every task your team is expected to complete. Besides their wealth of tactical knowledge, they have a wealth of ideas on how everything they do could be made simpler, easier, faster. However, they’ve been waiting for you to ask and they need your help to make those changes.
What can you do for them?
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FOOTNOTE
1. President John Kennedy Inauguration Speech - January 10, 1961
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