Engage Your Team
This is the year that you are going to really make some things happen at work. The problem is that you are just one person, and the people you supervise are the ones that actually make stuff happen. How do you get them engaged so that they go for it?
Two words come to mind: Involvement and support. If you want people to get fired up about something, the best way I know to make that happen is to ask them to figure out what should be done and how to make it happen. They do the work. They are well aware of the problems and the opportunities. The trick is involving them in a manner that makes them confident that you want their ideas. Sometimes this process goes better with the help of an outside facilitator. The facilitator is able to tease out their ideas and opinions in a way that the boss often cannot do.
Once you’ve all figured out what you want, the next step is to give people the support they need to make progress towards the goals. This might mean resources. It could mean obtaining approvals from higher levels of authority. It might simply be some good old-fashioned cheerleading.
You can make stuff happen. You just need to get it done through the people you lead.
