Page 165 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

136 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

respect, and adherence to a common mission and vision. Super-
visors partner with employees by actively eliciting their sug-
gestions, creating flexibility and autonomy in their jobs, and
extending to them decision-making authority. Partnering also
requires openly sharing big-picture information, including the
financials of the organization; fostering this kind of egalitarian
culture leads to employees feeling highly respected, empow-
ered, and engaged. Employees will demonstrate high levels of
initiative and discretionary effort and begin thinking of them-
selves more as business partners than employees.
Successful partnering requires both empowering employees
and providing them with ongoing supportive feedback as already
discussed. Supervisors must demonstrate their commitment to
their employees’ growth and success by providing new learning
opportunities and challenging assignments. They take the time to
get to know their employees’ personal and professional ambitions
and offer guidance, coaching, and mentoring. Partnering supervi-
sors let their employees know that they believe in them and sup-
port them. They also treat their employees as colleagues, not as
subordinates, and take pleasure in highlighting their accomplish-
ments so that they may be recognized by the organization.
Partnering occurs across departments when employees have
the opportunity to work together on special projects in cross-
departmental teams. All too often, departments fail to benefit
from one another’s resources and, as a result, tend to engage
in redundant efforts. Moreover, solutions reached by individ-
ual departments looking at issues from only their perspective
are rarely as beneficial as those reached through interdepart-
ment collaboration. Likewise, team members working indepen-
dently—or even at cross-efforts—will never realize the synergy
that can be reached through active partnership.