How to Improve Team Engagement and Alignment

Excellent article from the Harvard Business Review on effective ways for leaders to improve team engagement and alignment.

Here are some highlights:

interpersonal communication is key
have a “person to person” conversation rather than pushing a series of commands from on high
shift from a top-down distribution of information to a bottom-up exchange of ideas
4 essential attributes of interpersonal communication
- intimacy
  - gain trust through simply asking and answering questions rather than issuing orders
  - be authentic and straightforward
  - stop talking and start listening
  - take feedback seriously and absorb both good and bad feedback
- interactivity
  - talk with employees, not just to them
  - give employees the ability to speak up and (where appropriate) talk back
  - communicate in a dynamic, two-way fasion
- inclusion
  - include everyone as full-fledged conversation partners so as to raise the level of emotional engagement
  - allow employees to serve as frontline content providers
  - allow employees to serve as brand ambassadors, thought leaders, and storytellers
  - tell stories
- intentionality
  - learn from each other
  - derive relevant action from discussion and debate
  - generate consent rather than commanding consent
  - talk extensively about the vision and logic behind decision making
  - have open conversations about matching trends with possible solutions
  - always encourage!

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