Workplace Well-being: Engagement

Hello, Cadre crew. Welcome. Happy Monday. Starter. The afternoon, hopefully taking a lunch break right now, taking time to relax. I'm Matt Tappy, a graduate student in IO psychology, here right now talking about workplace well being. We're going through the Puma model of well being, founded and found by Martin Seligman. Perma model, again, is positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and then appreciation. Last week we talked about positive emotions. This week we're going to be talking about engagement.

Engagement is really the feeling of being attached and the ability to concentrate on activities. In performance psychology, maybe you've heard of engagement as flow, being in the state of flow. So when working remotely or in the workplace, being really attached to the work you're doing, focusing on it. So what are some things that maybe you experience during the workday that doesn't allow you to engage in your work? Maybe it's distractions like constant meetings. You can't get into the projects that you have or the other tasks.

Maybe it's the vague role descriptions or goals that you're given. You don't really know what you're working towards, what's the end goal? And maybe not giving enough resources so you don't have the proper software to do something or you weren't given the proper description on how to get something done. Is there anything that you got anyone feels that takes them away from their work during the day? Well, looking at it from a leadership perspective, and we'll kind of be looking at it that way today.

But even if you're not a leader and you can ask these from your leader or ask questions to get these kind of answers out of your leader, but from a leader, some things to avoid when trying to build engagement in your direct reports is rushing the evaluation. So if they're asking questions or showing you and asking for feedback, quickly evaluating their work and giving them constructive feedback without asking them questions first, it decreases motivation because they're not really able to critical think about their work that they're doing.

Also similar is pushing a top down approach. If somebody has an innovative idea of how to get something done, quickly shutting it down and saying, this is how we operate in this organization and it's more of a pull and you want the bottom up. So allow people to be innovative and think of new ideas. And lastly, is acting like a nordol. These all sound very similar. It's just the leader doesn't allow critical thinking in their direct reports. So some ways that leaders can build engagement or employees can seek to find more engagement in their work if they feel it's lacking is to set some clear expectations on the goals and what their work is going to be doing.

There's 13 researched, research backed ideas on how to do this. I'll quickly go through them but then highlight a couple that I think are important. First is to provide clarity, context, alignment. Also speak in plain words that uplift when talking about goals and ways that their roles impact the good of the organization. Don't just speak in metrics or in jargon, but really show how their role improves the organization. Asking rather than telling. Understand what success looks like and then describing it to the direct report.

So know the actual behaviors that you're looking for. Actual ways that you can tell that success is happening. Not just saying well this needs to be better, but saying this is what it should look like in the end. Another way is to be open about expectations, what they are and why. Ensure that expectations are also attainable and include employees on the expectation setting process. Make them feel involved. Build that intrinsic motivation where the employees are self motivated and they put their own goals into their expectations.

Ask about the employees personal goals, building that within them, making their expectations a part of their personal goals so they can be self motivated to achieve. Communicate the vision of the organization clearly and simply explain and prioritize specific actions from day one. So again, use specific behaviors right away of what the expectations are. Invite an honest conversation, set the tone with a positive open mind and then trust people are going to meet expectations. If you show that you trust the other person who is going to meet those expectations, that builds their confidence and builds their self efficacy that they will meet those expectations.

So if you really want to build engagement in your work, find specific ways behaviors to achieve a goal. What does that look like? Ask a leader or somebody else who does that role. What exactly the behaviors of success looks like. So you know exactly what your pursuing and set achievable goals that make you feel accomplished in the end. Build the self motivation into the work you're doing. Maybe it's just you're working for money so working for the bonus, that motivation is the bonus for you. Maybe you're more driven by the mission of your organization.

So figure out how your role contributes and that can build engagement there. And then asking for feedback and really speaking your voice in the feedback and the goals and expectations of the work that you're doing. Allow your direct reports and ask for freedom in setting your own goals and performance appraisal systems. So that's the engagement portion of the Perma model of workplace well being. Next week we'll get into the relationships aspect of in the workplace, but stay on Cadre. Today we have JC coming on at 1230, along with Darrell Glaze at five.

You can check out the full schedule on the app here, or you can go to @joincadre Oincadre on Instagram. So till next week when we talk about relationships, I hope you have a good week.