Did you know?

• Only 21% of workers feel engaged at work
• Disengaged workers cost U.S. companies $300 billion a year
• 70% of what determines a workplace culture is set by the leader

Yesterday, Rypple hosted a Leadership Webinar Series with master coaches from the Teleos Leadership Institute — the second in a three-part series on coaching. Suzanne Rotondo and Gretchen Schmelzer shared their insights on how leaders that become “coaching managers” are able to influence culture and impact business results.

They also shared six factors that influence workplace climate and drive engagement at work, based on research from global consulting firm The Hay Group.

1. Clarity

Clarity happens when people in the organization know what is expected of them. Be weary of the common mistake of assuming that people already know. You can’t be sure your people are working on the right things unless you check in regularly.

2. Standards

Set challenging but attainable goals for your people, and support them as they work toward attaining them.

For a coaching manager, a powerful developmental goal is one that meets the organization’s needs AND also serves the desires of the employee. Your role in supporting those goals will go a long way to creating an ideal climate for engagement and results.

3. Responsibility

Does your team have authority and a span of control? Here’s a quick check for you: If you were to step out of the picture entirely, could your team take responsibility for getting things done without twisting arms or getting into a huge bureaucratic mess? Give your team the authority to do their job with the knowledge that you trust them and have their back. Don’t micro-manage tasks — micro-manage relationships.

4. Flexibility

Get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy. By making it easy for your team to get their job done, you become more empathic and you start to open the doors for flexible thinking, creativity and innovation.

5. Rewards and Recognition

Recognize your people for doing great work — and encourage those on your team to recognize one another.

6. Team Commitment

We spend more time at work than anywhere else – and people want to feel proud of where they are putting in their time.

To encourage team commitment, coaching managers need to support relationships to influence even more powerful team outcomes. Often managers give feedback to the individual but it’s also important to give feedback to the team.

To hear more valuable insights from Teleos…

Watch the video:

Review the slides:

About Suzanne Rotondo

Suzanne is the Executive Director of the Teleos Leadership Institute and holds a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she studied leadership, consensus-building, and group dynamics. She was a senior editor with Harvard Business Press, where she acquired and edited business books in the areas of leadership, strategy, and marketing, and proudly serves on the Board of Directors for the Inglis Foundation.

About Gretchen Schmelzer

Gretchen is a Senior Consultant at Teleos and a lecturer in the Department of Counselling and Applied Educational Psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. Her training includes a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the UMASS Medical School’s Department of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine as well as a Clinical Fellowship at the Harvard Medical School. A two-time National Champion in Rowing, Gretchen also has extensive experience working with Olympic, master’s and collegiate level coaches and athletes.

Both Suzanne and Gretchen serve as master coach faculty for Teleos’ flagship coach development and certification program, which has been recognized by the International Coach Federation.