Own Up!

Leadership and management directly influence workplace engagement, and there is much that organizations can do to help their employees thrive at work.

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report

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One of the first principles or steps of change management and process improvement is root-cause analysis and clarifying the problem or current state.  That principle also directly applies to us as a leader and our role in employee engagement—and for a leader, that means greater self-awareness and clarity about how we show up and how others see us—our leadership presence. 

Leaders are the ones who set the tone and culture.  Leaders impact organizational effectiveness through their followers.  Leaders have a great impact on engaging employees.  Gallup reports that (emphasis added), "Seventy percent of team engagement is attributable to the manager." 

In others words, as leaders, whatever our engagement scores are, we have to own up.

Gallup recently released its annual global engagement report capturing 2022 engagement data from around the world.  While a slight uptick year over year, only 23% of employees globally are engaged and in the United States and Canada, engagement actually went down two percentage points (it remains above the global average at 31% engaged). 

Compare that to best-practice organizations who were awarded the Gallup Exceptional Place to Work Award this past year:

Adapted from Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report

This is a stark contrast.  This means that, globally, 77% of employees are less than engaged.  The report broke those down into Quiet Quitting (not engaged) at 59% and Loud Quitting (actively engaged) at 18%.

Others have already begun to report and blog about the report, such as CNN.  And, while they may highlight many important trends that Gallup identified and pointed out, they may or may not apply to you and your team.  You need to know what you can do for your team and how your leadership behaviors could be adjusted to positively impact them and what you're trying to achieve.

It all starts with self-awareness & clarity.
Self-awareness is an age-old starting point for anyone serious about any type of growth and development—and that certainly includes leadership development, amplifying your leadership effectiveness, and honing your leadership presence.

If I own 70% of the contribution to my engagement scores, what behaviors do I need to adjust in order to boost my team's perception of that?  How can I even learn what that is?

Take the LPI360
Analyzing your own engagement scores is not enough.  It will not completely drive down into the types of leadership behaviors that not only impact engagement, but almost everything you do as a leader and everything that you're shooting for.  It may or may not get at root cause.

I've pointed out the connections research has found between seeking leadership feedback and leadership effectiveness many times.  I did that most recently in a blog titled, How Do You Know if Your Leadership is Effective (or Not)?

The LPI360 or Leadership Practices Inventory provides you that powerful type of feedback.  It includes a self-assessment plus powerful, feedback from a variety of observers, most importantly, your one-up manager and your direct reports.  You and your observers rate how frequently you engage in each of 30 behaviors that drive exemplary leadership.  A customized, detailed, and confidential assessment report is then generated.

Hundreds of scientific studies have consistently confirmed the reliability and validity of the LPI.  To date, it has been trusted by over five million leaders worldwide and it has become the gold standard for leadership development. 

It is the best way a leader can gain greater self-awareness about what they do and don't do enough of.  When you couple your engagement report with your LPI360 report, you zero-in on opportunities for improvement you just couldn't see before.  You also gain clarity about what you are doing well so you can leverage that even more effectively.  It allows you to take a deeper dive into root cause about your engagement scores.

It's not going to tell you whether you are a "blue" or a "green" or whether you're a "D" or an "I", "S", or "C."  It's going to point to actionable behaviors that others perceive you are either doing frequently enough to drive exemplary leadership, or not.  Only armed with that type of clarity can you create an action plan for yourself that will truly impact engagement and a whole host of other outcomes.

I have administered hundreds of LPI 360s and consulted and coached dozens of leaders on this powerful leadership tool.  And, I am a skilled and experienced facilitator of the accompanying workshop that supports the LPI360:  The Leadership Challenge.  There is a best-selling book in its 7th edition by the same name by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner.

I am on a mission to partner with like-minded leaders who want to make a positive difference in the world.  I would love to partner with you, too!

To learn more and get started, just click this icon:

Taking the LPI360 and getting expert consultation about your report is an investment in yourself.  That also makes it an investment in your team, your constituents, your customers, and your efforts to make a positive difference in the world.

I want to wish all of the fathers a happy and amazing Father's Day!

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Have an amazing journey today!

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Alan Mikolaj is a coach and leadership development consultant with 15+ years of experience.  He is passionate about helping leaders transform their leadership, their teams, and their organizations.  Impactful, professional approach driven by a passion for meaning and purpose, a growth mindset, and a commitment to excellence and service in order to drive change and results.

Alan maintains the ethics and standards of behavior established by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), including the standards regarding confidentiality.  You can learn more about them on the ICF website.

Transformational change starts with a conversation!
Schedule your free, one-hour session by clicking here: Discovery Conversation with Alan
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