Let’s be honest - leadership has become a lot trickier. The days of just focusing on deliverables and seeing that as success - those are long gone. These days, leaders are juggling so much more - checking in on their team’s emotional well-being and mental health and ensuring people feel intrinsically motivated and engaged. And often, all of this is happening in a world where “the office” might mean someone’s kitchen table.
The old-school, task-focused leadership model is nowhere near enough. These days, it’s more about emotional competence— showing up in ways that as a leader you are more connected to your people.
The best leaders today get it: their presence, tone, and attention can shift the whole mood of their team - leaders do indeed “bring the weather”.
How to achieve real engagement…
Engagement has never been more important. How and when you achieve this has also become harder.
Real engagement is much more than the formal communication of vision, mission and values. Thankfully neither is it solely about the “organised fun” of pizza nights etc…What it is is about consistently showing up in a way where people feeling genuinely valued - every day. It’s about the little moments that matter.
The “water cooler” chats, the quick passing in the corridor check-in’s, the walking in or out of a meeting room catch-ups, or just being present to what might be going on for people in between meetings at their desk.
These opportunities matter a lot and yes in a hybrid or remote world, they’re harder to spot, let alone recreate. Maybe it’s a legacy of covid and the more formal topic driven communication that Zoom and Teams brought, but back in the real world, have we fully returned to the more informal leadership “in the gaps”?
It’s coming from a deeper place…
We all know that real engagement comes from a deeper place: meaningful work for individuals that feels connected to an overall purpose.
It’s about listening, noticing, and making the small moments count “in the gaps”.
That’s when engagement becomes an everyday currency.
In the spirit of the announcer on my tube journey this morning.
…Mind the gap.
Want to explore this more? Listen to our podcast episode on Leadership in the Gaps:
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