There are many factors that figure into the success of a great management team, but one that is unavoidable is developing and securing the existence of Employee Engagement. Whether it is from the internal side or the customer and client side, the more the employee team is fully engaged in the process, the more effective they and the effect of the relationships they develop will be.

Employee Engagement may be easy to understand, but it does take time and commitment to implement. The variables are rather straight forward: people need and want to be involved in the process; they want to have a voice and say on things; they want and need to be heard: they want input into the decision making process, even if a different decision is made; etc. Many times supervisors and managers know the best route to take and decision to make, so they just quickly move ahead and jump into the process. They then expect everyone to quickly jump on board and step in line, and often don’t understand when they meet resistance and pushback.

Again, the supervisor or manager saw their decision quickly and swiftly, so they do not understand when their team doesn’t immediately follow. Often times they do come around to the new idea or concept eventually, but often much time and anguish is experienced along the way. Time that could be spent in a much more productive and efficient way can never be regained or restored.

If employing the concept of Employee Engagement is key and without it the process of frustration and keeps repeating itself, why would a supervisor or manager not be quick to correct the process? One major factor is time, or their perceived lack of it. They often feel that taking the time to explain things and the reason a certain process is chosen over another is too time consuming, so why bother?

Another is the assumption that their staff would already know and understand their thought process, so again, why bother?

In both cases, nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, in both cases, and many others that probably could come to mind, the investment of time is far greater by not taking the time upfront to explain a decision or initially not walking people through the logistics of the process, than the time to talk, teach and explain after the job has already begun. When it comes to Employee Engagement, more, not less, is far more beneficial.