Q. How can a leader take proactive steps to engage employees?
I’m a firm believer in getting out of the office and walking around among your people, because of all the clichés you hear. It is lonely at the top, and it is very easy to get caught up in your office. You can always find a ton of things to do as the organization blithely goes on around you. So you have to make it a point to get out and walk around. I walk to the coffee shop every morning and get my own coffee. I stop at different offices along the way and just kind of wander about.
There is nothing more valuable than walking around, seeing things with your own eyes and asking questions. When people give you ideas or suggestions as you walk around, give them feedback. Do whatever it is you said you would do, assuming the request is meaningful and appropriate.
That’s the great advantage of getting out of your office. It gives you a breath of reality and a realistic vision of what your people are accomplishing as well as what they’re struggling with. Sometimes, even when you’re in a position like mine, you lose perspective on how good of a job and how comprehensive of a job the people at your organization are doing. It is re-energizing for me, particularly during the school year, to walk around. It can be astonishing walking into a nursing lab to see what is going on there, going to a choir practice, the academic support center, the gym, the dining hall, and all of it gives you a tremendous sense of the breadth and scope of what you are doing. It also gives you the opportunity to have a real appreciation of some of the issues your people face. Their problems and challenges become real, not something abstract.
Q. If someone says he or she doesn’t have time to get out of the office, how would you respond?
If someone were to say to me, ‘I just don’t have the time to get out, know and understand my own organization,’ I’d ask them, ‘Are you managing your calendar or is your calendar managing you?’ Because what could be more important than knowing your own organization, what is going on and how it’s happening? I understand that there is a perspective that a leader has to have versus the perspective of someone down in the trenches, so I’m not saying that you should spend all day in the trenches. But you do have to spend some time down in the trenches so you get a sense of what those folks are up against.
You really need to take a look at your calendar, and take a good, honest look at whether every item on your calendar absolutely trumps getting to know what is going on in the organization. For most people, the answer should be self-evident.
How to reach: Notre Dame College, (216) 381-1680 or www.notredamecollege.edu
