“I'm starting with the man in the mirror; I'm asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer: If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

Michael Jackson

Over the past several years, many leaders have worked harder than ever at finding ways to increase both employee and customer commitment. Of course, you can’t run a business without employee commitment. But you also need happy customers to market your business. So which do you prioritize, your employees or your customers? Neither. You start with yourself. How do you increase your own engagement and commitment to your career and organization? Here are some personal practices to help you do this:

1. Set aside “thinking” time, not just “doing” time. All leaders are action-oriented, because it is the essence of leadership to envision a future and take the helm to get there. But great leaders balance their actions with equal amounts of reflection. Beth is such a leader, because she integrates all of her change efforts into her organization. She is successful because she never undertakes a change effort that she doesn’t think about in detail beforehand.
2. Look at everything and think about all of it harder. Engaging leaders know that learning is a daily practice. As important as it is to learn through workshops, coaching and stretch assignments, it is even more important to learn by looking at and thinking about the world around you on a daily basis. Engaging leaders ask questions so they can better understand, surround themselves with people brighter than they are, and incorporate what they learn into practice. David is the poster child for this type of creative leader, because he learns from everyone around him and readily adopts best practices from other organizations, whether they are in his industry or not.
3. Examine the styles of relating that drive your leadership, and set aside what worked in the past but isn’t working now. Engaging leaders know we are spiritual and emotional beings who do not leave those parts of ourselves at home when we show up for work. They know that in reality, work is not all business… it is all personal. As a result, engaging leaders are willing to let go of coping strategies when those strategies have clearly stopped working.
4. Seek to understand the “whys” and “hows,” not just the “whats” behind your decisions. Engaging leaders never make decisions for the sake of action alone. They know, for example, why they want to reposition their brand in the minds of consumers. They know why it is better to centralize training vs. having separate training departments in each unit. They know why one customer service playbook should serve all departments in a global organization. Such leaders are trusted because they communicate their rationale to employees in a way that makes sense intellectually and emotionally.
5. Be brutally honest regarding the way you think about and use your power. Is your career about your own ambition, or about having an honest-to-God belief that you can help others through your leadership? If your career and leadership are all about you and gaining more power, you will never become an engaging leader, and you have little hope of capturing real “heart” commitment from your employees and customers. At the end of the day, a leadership philosophy based solely on control is one without hope.

The Bottom Line

Engage yourself by building your leadership skills. Do this by looking at and thinking about the world around you on a daily basis, replacing useless coping strategies, and communicating with your employees on intellectual and emotional levels. At the end of the day, you will find that engaging yourself will help you engage your employees and your customers and allow you to build a stronger business.