What do we mean by purposeful employee engagement and motivation?

Consider what are the benefits of this as we start thinking about what’s important in being part of a team that makes a difference?

All these questions and more can be asked when we start to explore the benefits of employee engagement and motivation by understanding our purpose and values and including them as part of our learning and development.

It’s important to ask yourself – ‘what’s my purpose here?’

It is a big question that needs time and space to reflect and consider what this means for you. Only then can you start to lead, empower and engage your teams with authenticity and gratitude.

Once you’ve explored and come up with your purpose, the next step is to talk about it with your team.

Start to identify what your team’s purpose is so that you can encourage great teamwork and motivation at work, which in turn creates a team that wants to work together, is willing to collaborate, looks out for each other and gets the job done.

Who doesn’t want that?

Each of us spend most of our working lives with other people, and therefore the ability to get along well, collaborate and look out for each other is paramount in thriving in work day to day.

But first, we must start with understanding the four key things that crossover to form our purpose.

These are:

1. Passion – what do you really love about what you do; how do you engage with others, so they want to come along with you and be part of your team?

2. Expertise – what are you super good at; what are you expert in; what makes you stand out from the crowd?

3. Talents – what skills do you have that enable you to build trust and respect; how do you demonstrate these talents to others so they can see the value you bring?

4. Values – what are your core values; what enables you to navigate your way through life; what helps you to make decisions?

Once you identify what these are, you can see your ‘why’ for doing what you do.

Knowing your ‘why’ enables you to focus on what’s essential and contribute to the world with the purpose-driven passion, expertise and talents you bring.

Wow! Who wouldn’t want that? When you live your life with intent, you can understand the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of living a life with a sense of purpose.

Knowing your purpose will also impact other areas of your life – your well-being, ability to make great decisions, resilience, motivation, and relationships with others. This then ensures that you, and those around you, benefit from you being you and living the life you want to be living.

So you’ll now wonder how you can do this for your team, right?

Easy, it’s the same principles in identifying, as a team, what are the passions, expertise, talents and values that your team have. A great way to do this with your team is to visualise what this means and how it makes your employees feel. So get busy with flip charts, pens, pictures – whatever brings the conversation to life.

Create a safe space to show a level of vulnerability and opportunity to explore and be creative. Take time to map out and answer these questions as a team –

• When do we feel alive?
• What are the strengths that we each bring?
• Where do you think you are most useful in this team?
• Identifying what success means for us?
• Which elements are you passionate about in what we do as a team?
• What impact do we want to have as a team?
• How will you know you matter to this team?

What next?

Once you’ve looked at the responses, identify what’s important to you as a team when considering employee engagement and motivation. From here, you can start to align your goals and know what and how you need ‘to be to live your life ‘on purpose and create a sense of fulfilment and belonging for all.

The benefits of engaging with your team members in this way creates an environment where engaged employees want to come to work; they have a true sense of belonging and know that they can contribute in a way with no judgement or critique that puts them down rather than lifts them up.

Personally, we all have a purpose in life, and knowing what this means enables us to come off of auto-pilot and, with intent, we can choose how we show up each and every day.

We want to maximise our potential and know that we’ve contributed to the team’s success, so what’s stopping you from identifying the foundations of successful employee engagement? Hopefully, the answer is nothing!

If you have enjoyed this blog, you may find this article on The Benefits of Employee Engagement interesting!

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