QPONMLKJI ... or What Come Next

uicken..with Questions. The more questions you ask and participate in answering,the more you quicken employees' engagement. The beauty of a direction-setting question is its allowing others to direct themselves with their answers...and to take ownership of their direction.

ersist. Quite often the first effort to light a fire fails. Sometimes second and third tries, too. Persistence encouraging your people to experience engagement pays off. Persistence is often the key. Engagement can/should be with more than just one's job. Think of career, company, network, community, and personal development as engagement arenas also.

pportunize. Offer numerous engagement opportunities. Assuming that the job is where one should engage is natural. The job's why s/he was hired. However, there are many surrounding engagement areas that stimulate job-engagement. Let me repeat: Think of career, company, network, community, and personal development as engagement arenas.

ibble. Sometimes engagement is better experienced in small bites. To attempt an Engagement or Else in the Next 30 Days strategy may bite more than your team can chew or more than they will swallow! Small steps that establish familiarity and build acceptance ultimately produce greater strides.

astermind. Here's the perfect example of synergy. Engage your people in developing their engagement. Invite discussion, ideation, forums that generate ways to engage. You may call it something else, but the truth is this: every time your folks turn on their idea-machines, they engage themselves.

andscape. Make plans. See the blueprint. Design the beauty. Build your own Big Picture. What you want to happen is more likely to happen--and more likely to happen sooner--if you've painted in broad strokes the landscape of the employee engagement you desire.

nit. Truth: well-formed, strongly coached, and frequently energized teams do more than individuals. As a leader you can knit and weave team structure. You can knit it with the yarn of engagement. Just know not to knot things up.

oin in. Your communication with your people should not come from afar. As you participate (don't confuse with "micro-manage"), your credibility and authenticity increase. Join in with just as much concern and care for what goes on as those on the front line have. This means sometimes you may wish to drop your manager's POV.

nfuse. You cannot offer too much communication, encouragement, modeling, or examples of employee engagement. Concentrate on developing ways to let engagement flavor everything you say and do, every example or illustration you share, every compliment and congratulations you offer.