This posting, 3 of 3, is the one you've been waiting for. It's the "how-to" posting. Here you'll find a list of ways you–manager and leader–can make purpose a front of mind concept that positively impacts and is positively impacted by your employees' engagement.

[B/T/W, the first posting defined the relationship between purpose and engagement. The second posting viewed Victor Frankl's three suggestions to achieve a meaningful life as relevant to an employee's sense(s) of purpose.]

So…how can you make some/all of the aspects of purpose meaningful for your employees?

First, I encourage you to keep in mind the CORE acronym: Communications, Opportunities, Resources, 
Engagement.

• The more you actively communicate about engagement and factors that relate to it, the more engagement will occur.
• The more opportunities you initiate that stimulate attention to engagement (job, career, company, networks, community), the more chances (and motivations) your employees have to engage.
• The more resources you select and make available to assist your people's engagement, the more readily they will take on that engagement.
• The more you energetically evidence your own engagement in your work, the more your people have to mirror.

Now, here's a list of random ways to cut to the CORE of your employees' engagement by bringing a sense of purpose into their clear vision.

• Communication around some/all of these questions.
• • What is our business's purpose…specifically?
  • How does our department/team contribute to that purpose? What is our specific purpose?
  • What part do you play in our team's contribution? What specific purpose do you fulfill in your job?
  • What other questions can you/your people come up with…that relate to purpose and a sense of same?

• Opportunities to answer those questions.
  • Start with Purpose: staff meeting ice breakers
  • Lunch on Purpose: informal "3d Thursday of the Month" sessions
  • Change of Purpose: thought-expanding discussion along the lines of If our company's purpose changed to ___, how would that change our team's purpose? …your individual purpose?
  • What other activities and events can you/your people come up with that offer opportunity to think, talk, learn about purpose?

  
  

• Resources you may want to provide your people that stimulate thinking and doing around purpose.
  • Annual report
  • Customer satisfaction surveys and results
  • Benchmark studies
  • Organizational and strategic plans
  • Media articles and reports about your company, competitors, marketplace, etc.

• Engagement by you, both simple and critical.
  • Simple: taking visible, observable action to provide the three areas above (C, O, R) demonstrates your engagement. Do it with energy and excitement.
  • Critical: psychological research bears out that employees mirror their manager/supervisor's behavior first and foremost. How (and how much) you engage determines how (and how much) they will.

ED.NOTE: Yes, you do detect a trend. You may have seen that last week's postings followed a common theme (employee engagement surveys). And this week's postings are all about purpose and engagement. You can expect this new ways of writing my blog…as long as

1. It feels like a good way to do things, and
2. I can come up with engagement themes that warrant at least 3 sequential postings.

I can foresee such themes as these:

• Engagement and Diversity
• Different Generations, Different Engagements
• Incentives' Effect on Engagement
• Engagement and Future Trends (I/O/W, How long will it last?)

Feel free to post a Comment with your thoughts for additional 3-part topics…about employee engagement.

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Tags: Communication, Employee Engagement, engagement, Opportunity, purpose, Resources