The Key To Engaging People Fully? Pay Attention To These 3 People

Estimated Reading Time: 7-8 minutes

So you’re a leader, you’ve got people who you’re in charge of, but you just can’t seem to get the best out of them. You would like them to put more effort into their roles, or show a little more commitment to the cause. Where do you even start?

This is the article for you.

One Person, Three Parts

No, this isn’t about to get religious, but I couldn’t resist the reference.

At the core of engagement lies this understanding: we are multi-faceted beings, and treating people like one-dimensional beings is a big mistake that corporate leaders seem to make consistently.

In my opinion, the entire conversation around engagement is a little too one-dimensional to approach it with the required nuance. We put out surveys’ to look for symptoms of engagement, then try to use the results to dictate what we do.

“Oh, people feel like they don’t have many friends at work? Let’s host more events to help people make friends at work.”

“Oh, you don’t feel like you have enough learning & development opportunities? Here’s more courses and programs we’ve organized for you.”

“Are you engaged yet? Oh, no? Well, I’m all out of ideas.”

Too “problem-solvey”. Too one-dimensional and transactional.

To get to the core of what really makes people tick we need to look a little deeper. When we look a little deeper, we find 3 distinct people that are at play in our careers and work. 3 people who most leaders don’t see distinctly, and as a result, struggle to engage anybody fully.

1. Who they are
2. Who they want to be
3. Who they could be

It is your job as a leader to touch each of these 3 people. Engage all 3 of them, and you get one engaged person. Let’s meet them.

Who They Are

This person is who they are at their core. A person’s character, values, strengths - their authentic selves. Engaging this person requires leaders to make their people feel like who they are is innately valuable, that they are recognised and celebrated for who they are - not what they accomplish or who they pretend to be.

When engaging this person, we look at 3 factors.
1. Trust
2. Belonging
3. Value

Trust

Do they feel like they are trusted by you, or the people they work with? Do they feel free to share ideas, opinions or concerns without fear of negative consequences? Do they feel like they are trusted to make decisions? Are they trusted to fulfill their commitments without feeling like someone is looking over their shoulder?

Feeling trusted gives people the feeling that it is a safe environment for them to try new things and contribute, and is a necessary condition for us to feel engaged at work. You cannot bring your best-self to an environment where you don’t feel trusted or safe to do so.

Belonging

Do people feel like they can bring their authentic self to work? Is their authentic self not only accepted, but celebrated? Do they truly belong, or do they feel like they have to suppress parts of they you are, or exhibit certain traits in order to fit in?

Belonging is not the same as fitting-in. Fitting-in is altering parts of yourself to conform to characteristics or traits that are commonly accepted, whereas belonging speaks to being loved for who you are. For an environment to make people feel like they belong, it must celebrate individuality and the uniqueness that each person brings to the table.

It is difficult to be fully engaged when people don’t feel like they don’t fully belong. When we feel like we have to hide parts of ourselves to be accepted, we can never truly bring out our best and fully engaged selves.

Value

Do people feel like they bring value to the table? Are they celebrated for the contributions they make at work? Do they feel appreciated and recognised for the unique value they provide?

Put simply, when people feel like they are valuable, they contribute more. If they feel like they’re worthless, they will contribute as much as they feel someone worthless might. Not much at all.

When it comes to value, contribution, appreciation and recognition are key. Are they allowed to contribute? And when they do, does anybody notice, and are they thanked for it?

That’s the first person down. The key here is you need to make your people feel like they are here because of who they are. Not anything else, but that their character, their personality, their innate value, is why they are here.

Who They Want To Be

This person represents the aspirational aspect of people. Who they want to be for the world, for the people around them, and for themselves. Questions revolving around meaning, purpose, fulfillment.

For The World

This talks about the work they do, or the work that your organization does. Here’s the nuance, not everybody is out to change the world, and that’s okay. Engaging who they want to be is not about pushing them to have a higher purpose, it’s solely about understanding who they want to be for the world. It might not be much and that’s okay.

If you can inspire them to make a bigger difference on the world, or show them that what they do can contribute to making the world a better place, then all the better!

For The People Around Them

Who are important to them? Who do they turn up to work for each day? Everybody has people who are important to them, friends, family, loved ones. Find out who they live for, speak to that, and chances are that you can engage them a little more effectively.

What impact do they want to have on the important people in their lives? This context matters immensely.

If they want to spend a lot of time with the people in their lives, maybe flexi-work or better hours might be what moves the needle for them. However, if it’s providing for their family, or setting up their next generation financially, you might look at pay as a way to motivate them.

For Themselves

Who do they want to see when they look in the mirror? What do they believe makes a fulfilled and satisfied life? Or it may not even have to be that deep, what do they enjoy to do? What hobbies do they have and what sense of fulfillment does that give them?

I once came across someone who told me that all they worked for was so they could go for their fishing holidays twice a year. That’s important information if you’re trying to motivate people!

Who They Could Be

This is arguably the most important person in terms of how much leaders and organisations can make an impact. Who they could be is the person that most of the time individuals aren’t aware of. This speaks to the developmental aspect of each individual, an innate need to improve and continuously become a better version of ourselves.

As leaders, if you can see something in your people that they cannot see in themselves, that’s powerful. What’s even more powerful is if you can help them reach levels they never even thought they could reach.

Development

Are they being equipped with the skills and knowledge to do well in their jobs? Not only that, but do they feel like they are being developed to move higher up in the organisation or careers? For their next jobs?

How much you invest in the development of your people is a direct measurement of how much you value your people - and they will feel that. Imagine a company purporting to recognise your value, yet they refuse to invest in helping you improve and are perfectly content with you staying as you are?

When put this way, many leaders I speak to instantly recognise the mistake they’ve been making, yet in most organisations many employees have gone months if not years without any training.

Develop your people.

Challenge

Part of developing into the person you could be is also a sense of challenge. To make people feel engaged at work, they need to feel like they are doing engaging work. Work that challenges them, makes them think.

Tackling bigger or more complex tasks, or even tackling the same problems in an entirely different context, are all ways to keep things challenging. When people feel like they are doing the same thing for too long, they lose interest.

Nurtured

It may seem similar to development, but it speaks a little more to a personal connection when it comes to improvement. It’s one thing to be sent for courses and new projects, but it’s entirely different experience to feel like you have someone championing your success.

It could look like mentorship, or having a career manager, but at it’s core, people want someone who will believe in them, who want to see them succeed, and will do whatever it takes to facilitate that.

As a leader, do you nurture the people under you? Are you a champion of their success? If the answer is no, you’ve got some work to do!

Wrapping Up

So there you have it. These are the three important people that make up each individual you lead. If it’s engagement you want, you need to touch all 3 people.

2/3 won’t do, but it’s better than nothing.

Never be confused about how to engage someone ever again. If you encounter someone who you repeatedly can’t get the most out of, chances are you’re not reaching at least one of these people. Use this as a guide to identify the root of disengagement, and the action plan forward.

All the best!

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

Explore My Relationship Accelerator program for leaders:

→ If you’re still struggling to unlock the potential of your people and would like to make some meaningful change - our relationship accelerator program helps your leaders learn all they need to know about building effective relationships to drive success - in one day. Check it out here.

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