Engaging Staff Members on a Daily Basis

As a leader, how do build staff engagement?

As a leader, dealing with staff members who lack enthusiasm for their jobs or don't feel connected to the school/organization is a big hurdle. Here are three things you can do daily to engage your people:

• Facilitate progress. Staff members feel engaged when they make headway toward objectives. Provide clear goals and resources to support their progress.
• Make work meaningful. Your school/organization doesn't need a lofty mission to make employees care. They simply need to see how their actions contribute to the value provided by the work of the school/organization.
• Reward and recognize. Don't wait for milestones. Show appreciation every day for the work your staff members do.

Adapted from "What Your Boss Needs to Know About Engagement" by Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer.

Celebrate, Recognize, Reinforce, Reward

As a leader, do you Celebrate, Recognize, Reinforce, and Reward your staff?

The kind of significant, sustained improvement that we need in [organizations] will not occur in an isolated, free-lance culture, where no one knows what anyone else is doing or what each other's operative goals are.  That is a system in disarray.

[Organizations] improve when purpose and effort unite.  One key is leadership that recognizes its most vital function: to keep everyone's eyes on the prize of [improvement].  The crush of competing agendas and distractions does not make that focus easy.

One of the most effective means to cultivate a goal-oriented culture is to regularly reinforce and recognize improvement efforts, both privately and publicly. 

From: Results by Mike Schmoker
(Published by: ASCD - The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)