How to Increase Employee Involvement

Involving your employees helps accomplish a number of positive things, such as:

• Your team members will buy into change more easily when you ask them for input.
• Because many jobs can become boring or routine, asking for input can add some variety and challenge and that can help motivate your team.
• When your team is more involved, your job as the leader becomes easier because everyone is pulling in the same direction.
• With younger team members, involvement helps you engage and motivate the team.

Here are three tips to increase employee involvement:

# 1 Ask, don’t tell

Instead of simply answering questions, whenever possible ask your team members to solve their own problems and provide suggestions. It can be easier for employees to ask their manager instead of thinking for themselves and that adds to the workload and stress for you as the leader. Ask your team member, “What do you think would work?” and see if he or she can solve the problem on his or her own.

# 2 Solicit suggestions

When you face a problem or a challenge, get your team members to offer ideas and suggestions. This can create both more ideas and different ideas, and get greater buy in to the changes you need to implement.

Even when the ideas and suggestions don’t differ much from your own ideas as the leader, you’ll find that involving your team is the best strategy in terms of motivation and reducing resistance.

# 3 Give the team credit

Helping your team feel good about their contributions can motivate them to increase performance. As the team makes progress and achieves milestones and targets, be sure to acknowledge their performance and give them credit. You can feel a sense of pride that you helped your team succeed.

Increasing employee involvement is a positive factor in motivating and engagement. You should notice an improvement in your team’s job satisfaction and the consistency of their performance. Your job as the leader will become easier when your team is actively helping you achieve results.

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