4 Underlying Factors Driving Exceptional Team Engagement

Go Beyond Buzzwords and Unlock True Employee Engagement

If you live in my country or my region of the world, you might be familiar with bands that play at Chinese funerals. Those bands play familiar tunes but in a cringe-worthy way. Even kids know that members of these bands are there to go through the motions, not to give great performances.

Your team is like an orchestra. Each member is a talented musician playing an instrument with unique capabilities. For the orchestra to perform a beautiful symphony that moves the listeners, every musician must be fully engaged, harmonised, and committed to the collective performance.

An orchestra with musicians who are not fully engaged or, worse, disengaged will produce music that is, at best, technically correct but lacking soul and, at worst, discordant and unpleasant!

What is Team/Employee Engagement?

Team engagement (or Employee Engagement) refers to the enthusiasm and dedication team members feel toward their job, team, and organisation. Another way of looking at this is the mental and emotional connection team members feel toward their team, organisation, and work.

Team members affect the team and the organisation through their actions and decisions daily. Engaged team members are highly invested in their work and willing to contribute to the team and the organisation’s success. They will give their best and go a second mile when needed. They are also more likely to be satisfied and fulfilled and report having a higher quality of life.

Engaged team members bring numerous benefits to the team and the organisation, including increased productivity, enhanced performance, retention, morale, and stakeholder satisfaction.

The Challenge that Teams Are Facing

Despite the benefits of having engaged team members or employees, the world of work faces a significant challenge. Gallup’s Global Workforce report revealed that only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. This means that a staggering 77% of team members or employees are either not engaged or actively disengaged!

A search on the internet yields many resources on how teams and organisations can improve engagement levels. Many of the measures are not difficult to implement, though they do require consistent and significant efforts. Yet, with all that teams and organisations are doing, engagement levels remain low!

What seems to be the problem?

There are many reasons why organisations’ employee engagement efforts fail. However, one key reason could be that they implement many of the measures without meeting the underlying needs of team members or employees.

The Underlying Factors Driving Engagement

Every person has four underlying needs at work. Many employee engagement measures are geared towards addressing variations of these needs. However, when leaders implement these measures without understanding the underlying needs, they risk becoming a set of mechanical processes with the form but lacking the spirit.

Leaders must first understand and address the underlying needs, not just the peripheral ones, to build a team with actively engaged members.

“My work is Meaningful.”

People crave a sense of purpose. Team members want to feel that their work contributes to something greater than themselves. Multiple studies have shown that employees are more likely to be deeply engaged when they perceive their work as meaningful.

Many leaders or organisations often consider this factor in relation to their team or organisational purpose and impact. They view ‘meaning’ from the team or organisation’s perspective. However, it is crucial to understand that this factor is about ‘meaning’ from the individual’s perspective.

Most advice on employee engagement focuses on helping employees understand how their work contributes to the team or organisation’s success. Doing so misses the point!

When team members seek meaning in their work, their primary concern is how they perceive that meaning. If their personal meaning aligns with the team’s, there is a good match. However, if their personal meaning does not align, the person will not be actively engaged with the work, even if the team’s work creates a positive impact.

What Leaders Can Do:

In addition to helping team members understand the team’s purpose and goals and how each member’s work contributes to those purposes and goals, team leaders need to understand each member’s passion and perception of meaning and find ways to connect the individual’s meaning to the team’s meaning.

“I’m Known.”

Everyone desires to be seen and understood. Employees don’t want leaders to know about them; they want leaders to know them! After all, employees are not mindless drones whose sole purpose is to produce some output.

Being ‘known’ is more than just about the employees’ likes and dislikes, what they can do or contribute, or facts about them; it is about knowing them as a person. Being ‘known’ by the people you work with (leaders, colleagues, team members, etc.) brings a sense of belonging, esteem, and recognition (which are mentioned in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). Research has shown that employees who feel they belong are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged than those who don’t.

What Leaders Can Do:

Spend time getting to know your team members and provide opportunities for the team to get to know one another. Be interested in your team members as people, not just in what they can do for the team.

“I’m Valued.”

Feeling valued goes beyond reward or recognition, though they are standard measures employed by organisations. Employees can quickly determine whether the reward stems from being genuinely valued or merely part of a carrot-and-stick strategy.

Employees want to know that their skills and talents are appreciated. They also want to feel valued and respected as individuals, not only for what they can contribute. They want to know that they are worthwhile in the eyes of their leaders and their team and that their leaders will invest in their development and well-being.

Being valued also means that team members’ views are being heard. Research shows that those who feel heard are 4.6 times more likely to give their best!

What Leaders Can Do:

See your team members not as tools to be used but as talented people to be invested in. In addition to rewarding or recognising their efforts and contributions, listen to them and seek their opinions.

“See your team members not as tools to be used but as talented people to be invested in.”

“I have a Future.”

No one enjoys being in a dead-end job, stagnant, or having no hope for the future.

Having a future is more about growth than promotion. While career development and advancement are possible growth areas, most people also want to grow in skills, knowledge, roles, responsibilities, scope, depth, mindset, capacity, and personal areas.

I knew a guy who had been a software developer for almost 20 years. He wanted to avoid being promoted and becoming a team leader because he felt a leadership role did not suit him. Yet he was very engaged in his work because he had many opportunities to take on new challenges, work with new people, learn new things and have new experiences!

When team members know their leaders and organisations are invested in them and committed to their growth, they are more likely to be actively engaged in their work.

Having a future is also about hope: where the team or organisation is heading, how they can continue to contribute, whether there is a clear direction, whether there will be help, guidance, support, etc. In a world of uncertainties, having hope for the future becomes extremely important. Tellingly, Gallup’s research found that when employees can’t see hope in the future, 99% of them report feeling disengaged at work!

What Leaders Can Do:

Invest in your team members’ growth and development. Understand their hopes and aspirations and offer opportunities for them to move in their desired direction. Openly communicate where the team is going and work with them to figure out how they will contribute to making it happen.

Unlocking Your Team’s Performance

Building a high-performing team requires more than managing tasks, processes, and goals. It involves creating an environment where team members can contribute meaningfully, feel known and valued, and have a future.

When leaders implement employee engagement strategies with these four underlying needs in mind, they can more effectively meet their team members’ needs. The result will be a more engaged team motivated and empowered to give their best.

What about your team?

How are you addressing these four underlying needs of your team members?

How needs to change in order for you to address these needs effectively?