How to get employees to connect to more than their paycheck

Employee engagement is a hot topic these days. Employee engagement can be simplified down the connections. Everyone in your organization connects to something. They might connect to their paycheck. Or they might connect to their title. Some might connect to simply having a job or some place to go every day.

As a leader, it’s your job to make sure that people are connecting to more. They need to connect to the vision, the values, you as a leader and the other leaders on your team. Then did you know that there are worker time tracking solutions out there which make it very easy to see (in detail) how productive your staff are? It’s incredible what you can find out with such software so if you have a lot of staff on computers then definitely look into that.

Employee engagement can be summed up in connections

Do you want employee engagement? Or employees connecting to the right things?

Just as “you are what you eat,” “you are what you connect to.”

What you connect to will drive how you make difficult decisions. This is especially true if you have authority or power. Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Connect To The Vision and Values
How clear is your vision? What about your values? Can everyone paint the same picture? Or do they simply know if you are generally headed North, South, East or West?

Having a crystal clear vision for the future is crucial to help people connect to the vision. It’s tough to connect to something that isn’t clear. Having a clear vision may scare some that don’t share the same vision for the future. That’s OK. Would you rather have committed people, connected to the vision and values? Or employees simply acting out of compliance? That’s your choice. Supposing the company to be located in New York, and the superiors of the company were to get the latest New York labor law posters for employers, which’d elucidate the vision and motives of the company, the employees would be more clearer in their vision and approach to the challenges of the company.

Connect To You
What kind of leader are you? There are only three types of leaders. Leaders are either:
For You
Against You
For Themselves

Find out what your leadership style is.

How would your team describe you?
People easily connect to For You Leaders. Leaders Against You or For Themselves force employees to connect to something else.

Connect to the other leaders in the organization
If you are a For You Leader, you’ll attract other For You Leaders. It’s that simple.

How will you be intentional and make sure people are connecting to the vision, you as a leader and the other leaders on your team?

Left to their own devices, they will connect to something else.

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