“That’s Gonna Be a No From Me” Strategies to Increase Employee Engagement

Every once in a while, you have the unique experience of being hit with unsolicited inspiration at a time you least expect it. Today is one of those rare moments. As I lay in bed, groggily attempting to escape the reality that I would soon be fully awake, I became aware of the phrase, “that’s gonna be a no from me” circling around in my head. As I came closer to true consciousness, that phrase morphed into flashes of memories of people saying that exact phrase when asked to complete a task at work or to participate in an event (me included). Those thoughts linked to my recent journey of leadership training and self-discovery—thereby compelling me to put my flashing inspirations into a comprehensive format lest I be driven mad by the uncontrollable urge to fit it all together. So here I sit typing before the sun is fully up with my head grinding gears in an attempt to organize my thoughts and document them before forgetting they ever existed.

Now for the disclaimer: I am by no means a trained psychologist or sociologist. In fact, my background is in Emergency Medical Services and higher education. Most of my thoughts are just that, MY thoughts and are not the result of extensive research and publication of peer reviewed articles. They are merely what I have begun to piece together based on my experiences and recent readings of materials that have helped shed light on the topics of personality types, emotional intelligence, appreciation at work, and trust in the workplace. If you’re looking for compelling research to help you with employee engagement, “this is not the resource you’re looking for” (bad Star Wars reference....). However, if you are mildly curious about the topic of employee engagement and don’t mind the ramblings of an ADHD introvert, then I hope you gain some insights (or a few chuckles) from my anecdotal, multi-part compilation.

The Issue At Hand

The inspiration behind this writing stems from years of hearing my colleagues say things like, “They want us to do THIS on top of everything else we do?!”, “Why can’t I just do my job?”, and my personal favorite, “That’s not my job!”. I’ll freely admit that I am just as guilty of saying these phrases and experiencing the frustrations shared by my colleagues. The truth is, I don’t know of anyone who is truly immune to these thoughts. We are all overwhelmed! It’s a natural response to experience negative emotions when asked to go beyond what your “job” is. Some people are more open to accepting new challenges and responsibilities, while others are not. It’s just who we are as a species who have evolved to placing a tremendous amount of emphasis on job performance, career success, and climbing the corporate ladder.

The reality of job performance and satisfaction at work goes beyond the job itself. It’s a concoction of personality types, varying levels of emotional intelligence, feeling valued and appreciated at work, trusting your team, and personal responsibility.

Wait, you mean that feeling satisfied at work isn’t just about working?

Yep.

The nature of most jobs is rarely truly autonomous work. The success of any project almost always is the result of persons working together to achieve a common goal. Granted, parts of those jobs can be completed autonomously; however, those parts usually fit together within the “big picture” of the organization. In short, the work we do impacts the work of others. It’s a symbiotic relationship in which one aspect cannot survive and thrive without the others. No matter how much we don’t like people (I’m one of those...), we MUST work together. This is sometimes much easier said than done. One of the keys to “sucking it up” and making the attempt to work with others is rooted in the knowledge that we are not all created equal.....in terms of personality preferences and traits, that is. We are all built a little differently—some of us more so than others. One of the first steps to building working relationships with others is to know more about WHO they are as a person, HOW they process information, and WHY people react the way they do. This is where personality testing can provide valuable insights into building effective teams.

You Mean We Don’t All Think the Same?

No, we don’t. Each person develops their own unique blend of special “herbs and spices” that makes them an individual and not just a generic copy of another person. Cue in the MBTI personality tests. These tests are generally accepted as very valid framework descriptions for how each of us interact with our environments, process information, approach problems, interact with others, and generally navigate through life. This writing will not delve into an exhaustive review of the 16 personality types identified by the MBTI typology. I’ll leave that to the actual scientists and the brilliant minds of Carl Jung, Katharine Briggs, Isabel Briggs Myers, and the like. However, knowing the personalities and preferences of team members is a crucial piece of building successful teams and engaging the unique talents of the team members. For readers who are not familiar with their typology, a free MBTI test can be completed at

www.16personalities.com.

Personality typing provides feedback on key aspects such as if a person is extroverted or introverted, learns through intuition or sensing, makes decisions based on feelings or logic, and whether they tend to develop plans or “go with the flow”. The descriptors I have just provided are a very generic interpretation of the different aspects of the personality typography. I encourage the reader to conduct some research to learn more about each aspect.

Understanding how people interact, work, think, feel, and resolve conflict can help organizations better understand each person as an individual AND how they can fit best within work teams to benefit the organization. For example, I am an introvert. I prefer to process information independently through reflection, would rather not be around people all the time, tend to withdraw into my “own little world” to make sense of what’s around me, and need to work mostly autonomously (although I can work in a team when needed). Being constantly around other people, talking, giving lectures, doing presentations, and interacting in social gatherings are all mentally and emotionally exhausting for me (not to mention, I am also awkward when in uncomfortable situations). I can do these things some of the time, but I cannot do them all the time. Conversely, my more extroverted colleagues seem to have an endless supply of energy and enthusiasm, are socially active, and spend their time reflecting through conversation and processing information externally. I am often fascinated by their ability to be “always on” and engage in conversations or activities that I really would not care to participate in.

Understanding the personality traits of employees can help build more effective teams for project completions. For example, organizations may consider building teams with complementary “superpowers” to achieve goals. Building a team with members who can “see the big picture” (strong intuition) balanced by those who “see the details” (strong sensing) and the planners (judging personalities) to be balanced by those who “go with the flow” (perceivers)—thus fitting together the pieces of the puzzle while adding flexibility to structure—can help bring balance and efficiency to taking a project from concept to reality. Likewise, incorporating those who make decisions based on relationships (feeling) with those who base decisions on logic (thinking) can add crucial elements of how the project impacts stakeholders from emotional and logical perspectives can have a huge impact on external perception and reception of the project.

While MBTI typology provides excellent insight into why people are the way they are, it does not provide the full picture of how we interact with others. To gain further insights into team members, evaluating their emotional intelligence (EQ) can help provide a more comprehensive profile of individuals.

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Employee Engagement Strategies Part 2 I Have a High IQ, Why Do You Care About EQ?

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That’s a wrap! Thoughts from the newly retired Wake County EMS Chief