Feeling valued and heard is one of the key indicators of whether an employee or student is engaged. Skilled leaders connect with individuals of all abilities, personalities, and backgrounds, and develop strong teams that effectively engage across these differences as well.
- Listen and loop back. Practice active listening. Explicitly ask whether a team member is sharing with you in confidence to gain guidance, or with the expectation that you will act. Take notes so you do not forget any promises or action items. Be sure to follow up so they know they have been heard.
- Practice humility. Being a leader and being an expert are not the same thing. Ask questions and empower team members to rise to their challenges…even if they do it differently than you would have.
- Check to see if you have favorites. We subconsciously favor people we perceive as similar to us. Perceived similarity makes it easier to relate to someone and see their potential contributions. As a leader, reflect on who you go to for advice, who has higher profile projects, how budgets are distributed, and who is invited to meetings or looped into communications. These reflections could help identify if you are unintentionally favoring people you perceive to be like you.
- Open up seats at the table. The tendency to subconsciously favor people we perceive as similar can also lead us to build a team with people who have common weaknesses or blind spots. Look around: Is there a particular class of employee, unit, or identity that is not represented? Sometimes there are good reasons to limit who is at the table, but it’s important to question “the way it's always been” to eliminate blind spots and ensure that you have viable approaches to the solve problems and pursue opportunities.
- Be whole humans. Part of being engaged is sharing information about yourself and listening to employees when they share. We can’t expect others to take risks and be fully invested if we are not modeling vulnerability ourselves. Make time to learn more about people’s passions, commitments, hopes, and values (but don’t play favorites). These small yet important opportunities to build complex human connections prevent us judging people based on a single role or identity.