Do the leadership skills and behaviors identified for improvement align with a specific question in the
engagement survey?
The leadership skills and behaviors identified for improvement are Working Conditions, Job
Satisfaction and Recognition and Praise and align with specific questions in the engagement survey.
Working Conditions – Enable Others to Act
Two survey questions that mapped to working conditions are “I trust my supervisor” and “My
supervisor provides leadership in just and ethical ways”.
Rationale
Working conditions, leadership and operational, are important drivers of employee engagement.
Building and sustaining trust, ethical conduct, and clear communications is a healthy prescription for
retaining talent and strengthening engagement. This area of concern is related to trust, ethics, lack of
support from the direct supervisor, and lack of support. The potential impact over time is low
productivity and an environment that feels exclusive versus inclusive. To counteract these issues,
building a communication strategy to communicate and promote the company mission, vision, and
values statements would strengthen the shortfall. Also, scheduling listening sessions and
communications education and training related to emotional intelligence and ethics are possible
solutions to improve working conditions. These actions will promote trust and enlighten leadership on
valuable ways to inspire employees.
Job Satisfaction – Inspire a Shared Vision
Two survey questions that mapped to job satisfaction are “I am very satisfied with my job” and “My
supervisor shows appreciation for the work that I do”.
Rationale
Job satisfaction related to underutilizing skills and abilities and not feeling appreciated were the
underlying concerns from the survey data. This area of concern directly ties to poor retention and
strained employee relations. Also, finding meaning in ones work and life are integral to job satisfaction
and may look different for everyone. To improve this area, leadership training and focusing on
fostering a collaborative team structure will be key. Often, low job satisfaction can be linked to
absenteeism and lower productivity. These steps will elevate employee job satisfaction and be a
catalyst for employee-supervisor bonding and team synergy.
Recognition and Praise – Encourage the Heart
Two survey questions that mapped to recognition and praise are “My work gives me a sense of
personal accomplishment” and “Employees are recognized based on merit (accomplishments,
successes).”
Rationale
Accomplishment and recognition/praise concerns were tied to lack of recognition based on merit and
feeling encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things. Recognition and praise in
the workplace are a building block to good morale and evident in organizations with a strong culture.
Having a formalized rewards and recognition program would help improve this area. It is not always
necessary to have a complex program. Spot rewards, public kudos, and thanking employees in group
meetings can have great impact. A pulse-check survey to all employees would reveal how the greater
group would like to be recognized. This could be a great mode of gleaning ideas and establishing buy-
in that would in turn promote engagement company-wide.
How will improvement in the leadership skills and behaviors you have identified positively impact the
results in the next employee engagement survey?
Improvement in leadership skills and behaviors will most certainly impact the next employee
engagement survey results. Leadership will gain knowledge and training that will allow them to be
more impactful and effective leaders with a better emotional intelligence skillset. Also, employees will
feel heard and benefit from having leadership that is in tune with the needs of employees which will
improve working conditions, job satisfaction, and recognition and praise company wide.
The leadership skills and behaviors identified for improvement are building trust in their employees,
recognizing an employee’s accomplishments and empowering employees. These skills tie to the
working conditions, reward and recognition and recognition praise categories in the engagement
survey. f f f
Building trust in their employees refers to the engagement survey of working conditions under “I trust
my supervisor” and “Provides leadership who act in just and ethical ways.” Leaders foster
collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships (Kouzes, 2021). A leader must exude
confidence in their employee and understand that they need to handle their role independently. f This
trust in the relationship will promote a stronger bond between the two parties. This trust also rolls
into the leader acting in just and ethical ways when making decisions. To fully trust your leader to
make ethical decisions or question situations from an ethical perspective will improve the working
conditions for the team and organization. f A bond of trust between an employee and their leadership
team affects all areas of an organization that will strengthen their relationship and result in growth
and success.
Recognizing an employee’s accomplishments ties to the reward and recognition category under “My
Supervisor takes the time to praise those who do an excellent job” and “When people work extra hard
to meet our goals they are rewarded accordingly.” Praising an individual builds confidence in their
role and when they reach goals they are rewarded appropriately. This will vastly improve the survey
results as they have decreased each time. When people see the successes and hear the positive
feedback, it creates momentum (Kouzes, 2021). Leaders can use this momentum to draw focus on the
organization’s values and long-term goals that will keep the team inspired and motivated. f f f f f f f f
Empowering employees correlates to the engagement survey of recognition and praise under “I feel
encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things” and “My work gives me a sense of
personal accomplishment.” A leader understands that each team member brings their own unique
skills and talent, and everyone should be given a chance to voice their opinion. f Being in a challenging
situation provides employees the chance to work on their process improvement skills and provide that
feeling of accomplishment when their ideas are executed. The employee being recognized in the
team should be acknowledged for their contributions. This behaviour will strengthen the employee to
think outside the box and keep their job progressing through individual development. f f f f
The three leadership skills and behaviors that I identified within the engagement survey responses
were working conditions, training and development, and recognition. Each of these have their own
skills and questions that align with them.
For the working conditions, the specific questions are "I trust my supervisor" and "Provides leadership
who act in just and ethical ways". The leadership skills that go along with these are communication
and trustworthiness due to the focus on making an environment where everyone is on the same page
and can trust the management to do the best for the company, the employees, and the customers.
For the training and development, the specific questions are "my supervisor talks with me to help me
determine my training and development goals" and "my supervisor gives me useful information on
how I can improve my job performance". The leadership skills that go along with these questions are
feedback and motivation. These skills are needed to help promote individuals’ growth by giving
relevant feedback to improve and motivate them to do better things than they are already doing.
For recognition, the specific questions are "recognizes employees based on merit, i.e.,
accomplishments, successes." and "when people work extra hard to meet our goals they are
rewarded accordingly". The leadership skills that go along with this is positivity and motivation. There
needs to be positive reinforcement and recognition of accomplishments to motivate and keep people
doing the best work they possibly can.
Improvement in these areas will positively impact these areas in the next survey. This is mainly due to
the management acknowledging the issues in the company, from the employee’s standpoint, and
working to fix and improve them. Improvement in motivation, feedback, and communication, the
foundation blocks within the company improve due to the leadership portraying the elements that
will be a focus for all within the company to make a better environment to work and develop in.
I had selected the skill of building communication and the behaviors of acting ethically, supporting
followers, and treating followers as individuals to include in the adaptive leadership toolkit. Building
the skill of clear communication related to multiple such as “I trust my supervisor”, “My Supervisor
lets me know where I stand and what is expected of me”, “My Supervisor talks with me to help me
determine my training and development goals”, and “I am very satisfied with my job.” This skill related
to questions across categories, but is more closely related to multiple questions from the “Working
Conditions” focus area. The behavior of acting ethically is aligned specifically with the question
“Provides leadership who act in just and ethical ways.” The behavior of supporting followers directly
relates to the question “When I am having difficulty my supervisor is there to support me so I do not
feel abandoned.” Lastly the identified behavior of treating followers as individuals directly aligns with
the survey question “Provides an inclusive environment where each employee is considered as an
individual.”
While most of the identified behaviors are directly aligned with a specific question and any
improvement with positively impact future scores for that specific question. This is simply since the
question itself is the metric to determine if there has been an improvement regarding those specified
behaviors. Improvements in clear communication will bring a positive impact to the next survey
results for trust between supervisors and their direct reports. In their book Leadership Challenge
Posner and Kouzes (2021) state that “Trust comes from understanding each other's values and
understanding our experiences and what we stand for.” For people to understand each other they
first must be able to effectively communicate. Additionally, if the supervisors are better at
communication, then they can better help their direct reports have a clear understanding of how well
they are performing, what is expected from them, and how they can improve their performance.
Better communication and trust will also aid in creating training and development goals as the
supervisor can better seek to understand the needs and goals of the individual. As an employee feels
that their supervisor can be trusted and has a genuine interest in helping them grow, the employee
will be more engaged with their work and will likely have higher survey results in the “Job Satisfaction”
area as well.
References
Posner, J.M.K.A.B. Z. (2021). Leadership Challenge, 6th Edition for
Southern New Hampshire University. Wiley Global Education US.
f f f https://wileyplus.vitalsource.com/books/9781119850717
Doyle, A. (2021, March 18). Important leadership skills for workplace success. The Balance Careers.
Retrieved November 21, 2021, from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-leadership-skills-
2063782.
Kouzes, James M., Posner, Barry Z. (2021). Leadership Challenge, 6th Edition for Southern New
Hampshire University. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Posner, J.M.K.A.B. Z. (2021). Leadership Challenge, 6th Edition for
f f f Southern New Hampshire University. Wiley Global Education US.
