What Leaders Must Do Next

Thanks for the article Jennifer. I agree that increasing employee engagement in this 'white water' environment we find ourselves in, is a key business imperative. One powerful way we have identified to achieve this is for the leader to engage their people in an adventure story: one in which the leader becomes the narrator and the people the stars, the heroes and the supporters.

In everyday conversations, when leaders paint a compelling picture of the future, articulating the need to work together to overcome obstacles and sharing real success stories from the organisation, people identify ways of becoming part of the solution.

When the key influencers in an organisation (often not the ones with 'leader' in their title) grab hold of the adventure and share and build it with others, then that excitement and focus helps the business negotiate the rapids and realise healthy high performance.

#10 IS LINKED TO #5, AND, IN MY CASE, HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH ME STAYING IN MY CURRENT POSITION.

I can not agree more that employee engagement is of crucial importance when the organization is trying to survive "white water".Now more than ever, action speaks louder than words .Making people know that "we are on the same boat" is not a matter of a nicely crafted memo from the CEO.It is very tempting to tolerate mediocre performance in the name of compassion. But nothing demotivates more than seeing a laggard getting the same privileges as the others putting in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.In good times and more so in bad times, fair actions and processes matter.It is good to emphasize that being in the same boat is not enough.We should all be rowing.