4 Essentials for Engaging Your People

At Sidekick, we're passionate about the power of employee engagement to transform organizations and their workplaces. Engaged employees bring superior quality of work, higher productivity, and more effective client servicing, brainstorming, problem solving, and not to mention they add value to the bottom line by reducing financial costs, increasing revenues and boosting overall morale. This makes a compelling case for why engagement is crucial for both employees and employers. 

We're constantly exploring the latest research, diving into insightful articles, and sparking conversations to stay at the forefront of this field. Our conversationsfuel our strategies that we tailor for each organization, ensuring that every team we work with is set up for success.We understand the importance of a workplace where employees thrive because when people flourish, so does the business. 

Let's delve into the key strategies that foster an environment where employees not only feel valued but are aligned with your organization's purpose and goals. 

1. Stay Focused on your North Star 

For thriving organizations, a North Star takes shape as a mission, vision, or purpose. It’s critical to ensure the North Star is understood by all and lived everyday through core values, ways of working, moments that matter and decisions made.  

If a North Star is too complicated, your employees can’t buy into it and believe in it.  

From there, employees can start to understand how their roles contribute to it.  

On your journey to the future, be sure to have a clear purpose that is simple, and that every employee can connect with. Remember: less is more. 

2. Right People, Right Seats 

You’ve likely heard the phrase 'right people, right seats'—essential not just for recruitment but also for retention, future planning, and overall business health. This idea is core to Gino Wickman's’ Entrepreneurial Operating System and pivotal to running your business. No matter what the future holds, do you have the right people to get you there, do they align with the company’s North Star and values, and are they serving in the right roles that unlock their skills and passions? This can also prompt difficult discussions that result in the realization that some people are no longer aligned with the company’s values and are not contributing to achieving the North Star.  

3. Foster Employee Wellbeing 

It’s about creating an environment that allows your employees to be / bring / do their best. Do you have an inclusive culture where all people feel they belong? Do you have a culture of continuous feedback? Are there clear accountabilities to coaching, development and mentorship? What is your employee value prop?  

I’m recalling a panel discussion at Collision in 2023. Wesley Chan, Co-founder & Managing Partner at FPV Ventures said that “people have had the past [few] years to really think about they want to do with their lives and how work fits into it. Not the other way around”. What employees expect of their work is evolving and the companies that thrive have come to embrace this.  

4. Demonstrate Trust and Transparency 

Now is the time to lead with transparency, honesty, and openness – qualities of the highly researched and practiced Authentic Leadership.  A study in the Leadership & Organization Development Journal reveals “that an employee’s perception of authentic leadership serves as the strongest predictor of job satisfaction and can have a positive impact on work-related attitudes and happiness”. Harvard Business Review says this leads to better relationships with colleagues, efficient problem solving, higher levels of trust, and ultimately greater productivity.  

And Forbes turned this into an insightful equation: 

Efficient problem solving + the ability to build teams easier + the development of authentic relationships + trust = higher levels of performance. 

Empower your team 

So, ask yourself: Do you have a clear North Star understood by all? Do you have the right people in the right seats to get you to that North Star? Are you fostering an environment that allows your people to be their best and do their best? Do you have the right leaders guiding you to the North Star? 

At Sidekick, we believe people are the driving force, requiring not only the right individuals but seamless alignment and collaboration to truly thrive.