Once the tiers of trust and purpose are in place, leaders can turn their attention to energizing employees. This is the process of motivating others to bring their best selves to work and fully engage with colleagues. Research shows that energy is a key stimulator of high-quality work connections and collaboration. (************************************************************
Leaders who can generate energy and enthusiasm, a relatively rare talent in work settings, are enormously valuable to their organizations. Indeed, our research finds that energizers are four times as likely to receive an organization’s top performance ratings and be promoted than nonenergizers. They are two to three times as likely to successfully manage career transitions. And, on average, their compensation, including bonuses, is (% to) ********************************************************% higher.
Energizers provide the jolt needed to quickly produce novel results and speed the transfer of knowledge. This makes them highly effective change agents. But that jolt can be delivered in a strategic manner only if organizations recognize their energizers and deploy their special skills.
This is easier said than done. You might expect energizers to always be the most charismatic people in a room or the funniest or the best storytellers. But they can be tough to spot. The most outgoing people are just as likely to be de-energizers as energizers, and energizers are just as likely to be introverted as extroverted. Our interviews with energizers reveal that they don’t distinguish themselves by being larger than life but by making other people feel as if they matter and creating flow in networks so that information, opportunities, better talent, and creativity move more fluidly through an organization.
The obstacles to identifying energizers by personality traits mean that companies need other ways to identify them. Again, ONA can help. At the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a biomedical research organization, Kate O’Brien, director of people analytics, used ONA to find the energizers among two groups of employees (approximately (out of 1, (total), many of them scientists , in the Cancer Program and the Data Sciences Platform groups. “There are these people who are connectors – hubs for other scientists,” said O’Brien. “They’re really essential people who, should they decide to go somewhere else, we would start to feel enthusiasm and mission-focused falling off in the culture.”
The results of the analysis were a surprise to the institute’s senior leaders, according to O’Brien. The list of energizers included quite a few scientists who weren’t winning winning research grants and who weren’t necessarily perceived as technical superstars. But they had other valuable attributes: The energizers saw people as individuals. They always took time to talk to colleagues and help them solve problems. They instinctively recognized that other scientists appreciated being cared about, and they took on that task. These behaviors are among several key leadership behaviors that we’ve found energize employees.
Humor is also part of energy generation. Many energizers use a self-deprecating approach to lighten moments or to lower the natural barriers that arise in interactions with authority figures. They look for opportunities to inject levity into work and encourage others to do so, too. One pharmaceutical manager told us that he asks a different team member to start each meeting with a humorous ad or video involving a company in an unrelated industry. The idea is to get people to laugh and relax a little – and not take themselves too seriously.
Leaders often underestimate the power of energizing behaviors. But throughout our study of energizers, we’ve found that their success is driven not by their ability to make things happen but by their ability to attract ideas, opportunities, and talented people. These things may seem to flow to them through serendipitous encounters, but energizers open the channels through which success flows.
Inevitably, when we present our findings to groups of leaders, someone asks the question on everyone’s mind: “What’s the one behavior I can adopt today that will raise the level of collaboration in my organization?” Unfortunately, for a Couple of reasons, there isn’t a simple answer to that question.
First, the effectiveness of the 95 behaviors identified in our analysis varies based on the dynamics within a given organization. That said, they all contribute positively and often work in combination. The more of these behaviors leaders exhibit and celebrate in others, the more likely their organization is to have high levels of collaboration. Conversely, if there are missing behaviors, the gaps can become stumbling blocks to the establishment of trust, purpose, and energy in the workforce – no matter how many of the other behaviors are present.
Second, every leader exhibits these behaviors in different combinations and different magnitudes. This means that the solution to raising the level of interpersonal collaboration will differ for every leader.
Instead of searching for a silver bullet, we invite you to assess your leadership behaviors by noting which of the 80 you exemplify and which you don’t. (************************************************************Then, starting with the behaviors that create an environment of trust, adopt the ones you currently lack and continually refine the rest. We’ve found that this systematic approach is the best way to become a better driver of interpersonal collaboration and employee engagement.
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