May 17, 2023 • 13 mins
Team engagement is such an important daily exercise that it can affect how well your team members succeed or not. Team members who are positively engaged are more productive, more efficient, and more motivated to do a great job. And team member engagement begins with us as leaders. We must be leaders of great character and integrity. Positive team member engagement leads to growth and high-quality output. Invest in yourself to be a better leader so you can further invest in your team to help them achieve greater potential, and you will see amazing results.
Episode outline:
- Why team engagement is important,
- Team engagement tools you can easily use, and
- How to go to the next level.
Please connect with me on:
1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii
For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy: financeleaderacademy.com.
- On the website, you can download the Become a Finance Leader Guide. You can use this guide to build your Finance Leadership skills so you can help senior leaders develop and execute the strategy.
- I also offer a course, Advance Your Finance and Accounting Career: Developing a Promotion Strategy that Sets You Apart.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stephen McLain (00:04):
team engagement is such an important daily
exercise, that it can affect howwell your team members succeed
or not. Team members who arepositively engaged, are more
productive, more efficient, andmore motivated to do a great
job. And team member engagementbegins with us as leaders, we
(00:27):
must be leaders have greatcharacter and integrity.
Positive team member engagementleads to growth and high quality
output. Invest in yourself to bea better leader, so you can
further and invest in your teamto help them achieve greater
potential, and you will seeamazing results. Please enjoy
the episode. Welcome to thefinance leader podcast where
(00:50):
leadership is bigger than thenumbers. I am your host, Stephen
McLean. This is the podcast fordeveloping leaders in finance
and accounting. Please considerfollowing me on Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedIn. My usernames and the
links are in this episode's shownotes. Thank you. This is
(01:10):
episode number 107. And I'll betalking about team engagement
tools we can use to bring outthe best on our team and I will
highlight the following topics.
Number one, why team engagementis important. Number two team
engagement tools you can easilyuse and three how to go to the
next level. Author andinspirational speaker Simon
(01:30):
Sinek said when people arefinancially invested, they want
to return when people areemotionally invested, they want
to contribute. I hope you allare having a great day and a
great week or maybe a greatweekend. If you're listening on
the weekend. I am very gratefulyou are here choosing the
finance leader podcast to helpwith your journey. To become a
(01:53):
better finance leader. We allwant to become better at
leadership in our jobs. I am anadvocate for you to apply
leadership to every accountingand finance function, role, task
project and requirement you mayhave. As finance and accounting
leaders, we get to make adifference to drive strategy and
to maximize the resources thecompany has. For the best
(02:16):
return. We get to do this, butwe must go beyond our
spreadsheets and our analysis toform relationships with leaders
and stakeholders around thecompany. To help you in your
finance leadership developmentjourney. I have a new written
guide for you called become afinance leader. You can download
it for free at the link in theshow notes or go to Finance
(02:39):
leader academy.com and downloadit there. Again, it's free, and
it will help you with yourmindset and the finance leader
insight cycle. So you can helpleaders throughout the
organization. Today I'm going totalk about team member
engagement as a criticalleadership function. We must be
involved with our teams so theycan also be successful. This is
(03:01):
not micromanagement I despisemicromanagement. But be present.
Be involved set priorities. Seewhere your team is stuck? And
what opportunities do they eachneed to move forward in their
careers. Don't overlook youreveryday team engagement. If you
step away too much, standardscan slip priorities get
(03:22):
forgotten, and our work becomessecondary. The company is
relying on us to help driveresults and maximize our
resources and to determine ourfinancial capabilities. So
better decisions can be made. Weas leaders need to be consistent
leadership always starts with usand how we approach our duties.
(03:43):
Are you showing up every daywith a great attitude ready to
lead? It's that simplesometimes, are we displaying
great character and are we notallowing gossip and other
treacherous activities in ourpresence? Are we setting the
right example for others tofollow? It always begins with
us. Our finance and accountingfunctions require us to
(04:06):
collaborate and engage. Becauseoften our technical requirements
can be complicated. It can bechallenging to go beyond the
expected task to find strategicinsights, which can be the
difference between success andfailure against our competitors.
One of the most importantfactors to team engagement is to
bring the right people on theteam and to avoid the wrong
(04:29):
people. Character matters morethan skills. If you bring the
wrong person on the team, youcan destroy the morale and
functionality of the team. Becautious who you hire. I know
this very well. Now let's talkabout team member engagement so
we can bring out the best on ourteam. Number one, why team
engagement is important. Itcomes down to this when
(04:53):
employees are engaged, they areless likely to leave. Team
engagement improves.
productivity and in improvesperformance. When employees are
engaged properly, they care moreabout their work, there's less
absenteeism, they are morelikely to share new ideas. They
start to love their jobs moreand want to contribute more.
(05:16):
Invest in yourself to be abetter leader who can properly
engage with their team. Numbertwo team engagement tools you
can easily use. I talked aboutthe following team engagement
tools in bonus episode number57. But this is such an
important topic that I wanted toshare again. Now the first one
is resourcing. Is your teamproperly resourced? There's
(05:39):
nothing more frustrating as anemployee, when you don't have
the right equipment and theright tools to do a great job.
Have you assessed that your teamhas resource properly. This
includes having the rightinformation systems that match
the data requirements for yourcompany, assess and then
coordinate for the resourcesyour team needs. Also recommend
(06:01):
what long term systeminfrastructure investments that
must be made? The next istraining. Is your team properly
trained? Does each team memberhave an individual development
plan, and sure you assess whattraining gaps you may have on
the team and work to addressthose gaps. We are developing
future finance leaders so youneed to go beyond the everyday
(06:23):
Excel and analysis skills. Weneed to develop critical soft
skills to drive strategicresults, and so we can learn how
to work with senior leadersconfidently. The next is new
process development sometimeswill change or with new
requirements. It may require apolicy or process update or a
(06:44):
new approved efficiency. If youdon't address required changes,
your team may get frustrated andthis can lead to shortcuts,
which can lead to uncontrolledrisk. continually ask and
address where policy or theprocess needs to be updated so
we can avoid our team memberscreating their own policy. This
can lead to disaster so ask whatneeds to be updated? And the
(07:08):
next is addressing concerns. Howdo you address issues on your
team? One on one sessions can begreat forums for asking for
issues that you may not be awareof be approachable and open to
suggestions. So your team feelscomfortable bringing concerns to
you. The moment your team feelsuncomfortable, bringing concerns
(07:29):
to you, you cease being aleader. The next is team
culture. Does your team culturefoster trust in high goal
achievement? What can you dodifferently to create a culture
where the team feels valued andbelieves they can win? team
culture matters? Do you havebullies on the team? Do you have
team members who are out oftouch or have no filters. You
(07:52):
want a team culture thatencourages development and
achievement, and a place wherepeople can be safe sharing new
ideas. The next is improvedcommunication when we
communicate clearly our intent,the purpose or values and the
vision. And then we alsopractice the same values, we
start to set a great example,share relevant information
(08:13):
upfront and learn to be a betteractive listener to continually
try to improve communicationwith the team. The next is to
provide opportunities foradvancement as leaders, we
should create and provideopportunities for our team
members to excel so they canadvance in their careers.
Challenge your team members. Sothey can show off their
(08:34):
potential for greaterresponsibility, reward those who
outperform the standard. Now Iwant you to assess where you can
better engage the team andutilize these tools, and maybe
others to bring the bestexperience possible to develop
your team. Number three, how togo to the next level. Now here
are a few personal tools to helpyou and your team go to the next
(08:57):
level. And of course, it beginswith you, your attitude and your
approach to other people. Wehave to do the self assessment.
So we ask ourselves and maybe atrusted colleague if we
naturally inspire people who arearound us, or do we need some
work with our approach? Do youthink your personality, how you
(09:17):
speak and how you relate toothers is an asset or is it a
hindrance to creating great teamengagement?
Do you set the right example? Doyou conduct yourself with great
character with honor and withintegrity? If not, people will
pick up on it and will reacteven silently react you will
lose your team. The opposite istrue and this is where I want
(09:40):
you to be a leader who leadswith positivity and high
integrity. A leader who matchestheir actions to their words.
This is the goal and it takescommitment and practice. Again I
despise micromanagement butsometimes we are forced into
micromanagement because of whomwe report to you If they
(10:00):
micromanage, then we become oneout of survival. It's a
horrible, horrible cycle. Butalso, not being involved with
their team is not the answereither. There is a middle ground
where trust rules the day, butyou also are guiding your team
to the vision, not controllingevery movement, but motivating
in a positive way, holdingpeople accountable, but also
(10:23):
providing each person todecision to accomplish the
tasks, how they see it. As longas they are meeting the standard
and meeting their deadlines. Wehave lots of middle ground to
inspire our team to be theirbest, while not controlling
everything they do. We lead byproviding purpose vision, by
setting priorities byeliminating obstacles, and by
(10:44):
finding ways for our exceptionalteam members to excel and to
advance now for action today.
What are you doing to improveteam member engagement? Can you
use any of the tools I mentionedearlier? To improve how your
team interacts? Also, what canyou do to become a better
example of leadership for yourteam so review the tools and
apply them where you can to makethe best team member engagement
(11:08):
strategy. Today I talked aboutteam member engagement tools we
can use to bring out the best onour team and I highlighted the
following points. Number one,why team member engagement is
important. Number two, teamengagement tools you can easily
use and three how to go to thenext level. Our teams mean a
lot, how they processinformation and tasks matter and
(11:30):
how we lead them matters evenmore. We have to show up and
lead with great attitude andeven greater integrity. We have
to bring positive growthoriented engagement to them. A
team that is engaged with agreat leader will be more
productive and more motivated tobe their best. I encourage you
to learn how to engage your teamso they are set up for success
(11:53):
every day. We can all improve inthis area. Review the tools
again that I mentioned earlier.
Listen again to bonus episodenumber 57. If you need to learn
how to bring out the best inyour team so they perform their
best to help the organizationachieve its goals. Next episode
I will be talking aboutovercoming obsessive compulsive
(12:14):
disorder. I am not a mentalhealth professional. But I do
understand OCD very well. Ithink I can give you a few tips.
If you suffer from OCD. As afinance and accounting
professional I can't wait toshare. I hope you enjoyed the
finance leader podcast I amdedicated to helping you grow
your leadership skills to changeyour mindset and to clarify your
(12:37):
goals so you advance yourcareer. You can find this
episode wherever you listen topodcasts. If this episode helped
you today, please share andleave a quick review so that
others can find the podcast. Anduntil next time, you can check
out more resources at financeleader academy.com and sign up
for my weekly updates. Don'tmiss an episode of the podcast.
(12:59):
And now go lead your team. AndI'll see you next time. Thank
you
team engagement is such an important daily
exercise, that it can affect howwell your team members succeed
or not. Team members who arepositively engaged, are more
productive, more efficient, andmore motivated to do a great
job. And team member engagementbegins with us as leaders, we
(00:27):
must be leaders have greatcharacter and integrity.
Positive team member engagementleads to growth and high quality
output. Invest in yourself to bea better leader, so you can
further and invest in your teamto help them achieve greater
potential, and you will seeamazing results. Please enjoy
the episode. Welcome to thefinance leader podcast where
(00:50):
leadership is bigger than thenumbers. I am your host, Stephen
McLean. This is the podcast fordeveloping leaders in finance
and accounting. Please considerfollowing me on Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedIn. My usernames and the
links are in this episode's shownotes. Thank you. This is
(01:10):
episode number 107. And I'll betalking about team engagement
tools we can use to bring outthe best on our team and I will
highlight the following topics.
Number one, why team engagementis important. Number two team
engagement tools you can easilyuse and three how to go to the
next level. Author andinspirational speaker Simon
(01:30):
Sinek said when people arefinancially invested, they want
to return when people areemotionally invested, they want
to contribute. I hope you allare having a great day and a
great week or maybe a greatweekend. If you're listening on
the weekend. I am very gratefulyou are here choosing the
finance leader podcast to helpwith your journey. To become a
(01:53):
better finance leader. We allwant to become better at
leadership in our jobs. I am anadvocate for you to apply
leadership to every accountingand finance function, role, task
project and requirement you mayhave. As finance and accounting
leaders, we get to make adifference to drive strategy and
to maximize the resources thecompany has. For the best
(02:16):
return. We get to do this, butwe must go beyond our
spreadsheets and our analysis toform relationships with leaders
and stakeholders around thecompany. To help you in your
finance leadership developmentjourney. I have a new written
guide for you called become afinance leader. You can download
it for free at the link in theshow notes or go to Finance
(02:39):
leader academy.com and downloadit there. Again, it's free, and
it will help you with yourmindset and the finance leader
insight cycle. So you can helpleaders throughout the
organization. Today I'm going totalk about team member
engagement as a criticalleadership function. We must be
involved with our teams so theycan also be successful. This is
(03:01):
not micromanagement I despisemicromanagement. But be present.
Be involved set priorities. Seewhere your team is stuck? And
what opportunities do they eachneed to move forward in their
careers. Don't overlook youreveryday team engagement. If you
step away too much, standardscan slip priorities get
(03:22):
forgotten, and our work becomessecondary. The company is
relying on us to help driveresults and maximize our
resources and to determine ourfinancial capabilities. So
better decisions can be made. Weas leaders need to be consistent
leadership always starts with usand how we approach our duties.
(03:43):
Are you showing up every daywith a great attitude ready to
lead? It's that simplesometimes, are we displaying
great character and are we notallowing gossip and other
treacherous activities in ourpresence? Are we setting the
right example for others tofollow? It always begins with
us. Our finance and accountingfunctions require us to
(04:06):
collaborate and engage. Becauseoften our technical requirements
can be complicated. It can bechallenging to go beyond the
expected task to find strategicinsights, which can be the
difference between success andfailure against our competitors.
One of the most importantfactors to team engagement is to
bring the right people on theteam and to avoid the wrong
(04:29):
people. Character matters morethan skills. If you bring the
wrong person on the team, youcan destroy the morale and
functionality of the team. Becautious who you hire. I know
this very well. Now let's talkabout team member engagement so
we can bring out the best on ourteam. Number one, why team
engagement is important. Itcomes down to this when
(04:53):
employees are engaged, they areless likely to leave. Team
engagement improves.
productivity and in improvesperformance. When employees are
engaged properly, they care moreabout their work, there's less
absenteeism, they are morelikely to share new ideas. They
start to love their jobs moreand want to contribute more.
(05:16):
Invest in yourself to be abetter leader who can properly
engage with their team. Numbertwo team engagement tools you
can easily use. I talked aboutthe following team engagement
tools in bonus episode number57. But this is such an
important topic that I wanted toshare again. Now the first one
is resourcing. Is your teamproperly resourced? There's
(05:39):
nothing more frustrating as anemployee, when you don't have
the right equipment and theright tools to do a great job.
Have you assessed that your teamhas resource properly. This
includes having the rightinformation systems that match
the data requirements for yourcompany, assess and then
coordinate for the resourcesyour team needs. Also recommend
(06:01):
what long term systeminfrastructure investments that
must be made? The next istraining. Is your team properly
trained? Does each team memberhave an individual development
plan, and sure you assess whattraining gaps you may have on
the team and work to addressthose gaps. We are developing
future finance leaders so youneed to go beyond the everyday
(06:23):
Excel and analysis skills. Weneed to develop critical soft
skills to drive strategicresults, and so we can learn how
to work with senior leadersconfidently. The next is new
process development sometimeswill change or with new
requirements. It may require apolicy or process update or a
(06:44):
new approved efficiency. If youdon't address required changes,
your team may get frustrated andthis can lead to shortcuts,
which can lead to uncontrolledrisk. continually ask and
address where policy or theprocess needs to be updated so
we can avoid our team memberscreating their own policy. This
can lead to disaster so ask whatneeds to be updated? And the
(07:08):
next is addressing concerns. Howdo you address issues on your
team? One on one sessions can begreat forums for asking for
issues that you may not be awareof be approachable and open to
suggestions. So your team feelscomfortable bringing concerns to
you. The moment your team feelsuncomfortable, bringing concerns
(07:29):
to you, you cease being aleader. The next is team
culture. Does your team culturefoster trust in high goal
achievement? What can you dodifferently to create a culture
where the team feels valued andbelieves they can win? team
culture matters? Do you havebullies on the team? Do you have
team members who are out oftouch or have no filters. You
(07:52):
want a team culture thatencourages development and
achievement, and a place wherepeople can be safe sharing new
ideas. The next is improvedcommunication when we
communicate clearly our intent,the purpose or values and the
vision. And then we alsopractice the same values, we
start to set a great example,share relevant information
(08:13):
upfront and learn to be a betteractive listener to continually
try to improve communicationwith the team. The next is to
provide opportunities foradvancement as leaders, we
should create and provideopportunities for our team
members to excel so they canadvance in their careers.
Challenge your team members. Sothey can show off their
(08:34):
potential for greaterresponsibility, reward those who
outperform the standard. Now Iwant you to assess where you can
better engage the team andutilize these tools, and maybe
others to bring the bestexperience possible to develop
your team. Number three, how togo to the next level. Now here
are a few personal tools to helpyou and your team go to the next
(08:57):
level. And of course, it beginswith you, your attitude and your
approach to other people. Wehave to do the self assessment.
So we ask ourselves and maybe atrusted colleague if we
naturally inspire people who arearound us, or do we need some
work with our approach? Do youthink your personality, how you
(09:17):
speak and how you relate toothers is an asset or is it a
hindrance to creating great teamengagement?
Do you set the right example? Doyou conduct yourself with great
character with honor and withintegrity? If not, people will
pick up on it and will reacteven silently react you will
lose your team. The opposite istrue and this is where I want
(09:40):
you to be a leader who leadswith positivity and high
integrity. A leader who matchestheir actions to their words.
This is the goal and it takescommitment and practice. Again I
despise micromanagement butsometimes we are forced into
micromanagement because of whomwe report to you If they
(10:00):
micromanage, then we become oneout of survival. It's a
horrible, horrible cycle. Butalso, not being involved with
their team is not the answereither. There is a middle ground
where trust rules the day, butyou also are guiding your team
to the vision, not controllingevery movement, but motivating
in a positive way, holdingpeople accountable, but also
(10:23):
providing each person todecision to accomplish the
tasks, how they see it. As longas they are meeting the standard
and meeting their deadlines. Wehave lots of middle ground to
inspire our team to be theirbest, while not controlling
everything they do. We lead byproviding purpose vision, by
setting priorities byeliminating obstacles, and by
(10:44):
finding ways for our exceptionalteam members to excel and to
advance now for action today.
What are you doing to improveteam member engagement? Can you
use any of the tools I mentionedearlier? To improve how your
team interacts? Also, what canyou do to become a better
example of leadership for yourteam so review the tools and
apply them where you can to makethe best team member engagement
(11:08):
strategy. Today I talked aboutteam member engagement tools we
can use to bring out the best onour team and I highlighted the
following points. Number one,why team member engagement is
important. Number two, teamengagement tools you can easily
use and three how to go to thenext level. Our teams mean a
lot, how they processinformation and tasks matter and
(11:30):
how we lead them matters evenmore. We have to show up and
lead with great attitude andeven greater integrity. We have
to bring positive growthoriented engagement to them. A
team that is engaged with agreat leader will be more
productive and more motivated tobe their best. I encourage you
to learn how to engage your teamso they are set up for success
(11:53):
every day. We can all improve inthis area. Review the tools
again that I mentioned earlier.
Listen again to bonus episodenumber 57. If you need to learn
how to bring out the best inyour team so they perform their
best to help the organizationachieve its goals. Next episode
I will be talking aboutovercoming obsessive compulsive
(12:14):
disorder. I am not a mentalhealth professional. But I do
understand OCD very well. Ithink I can give you a few tips.
If you suffer from OCD. As afinance and accounting
professional I can't wait toshare. I hope you enjoyed the
finance leader podcast I amdedicated to helping you grow
your leadership skills to changeyour mindset and to clarify your
(12:37):
goals so you advance yourcareer. You can find this
episode wherever you listen topodcasts. If this episode helped
you today, please share andleave a quick review so that
others can find the podcast. Anduntil next time, you can check
out more resources at financeleader academy.com and sign up
for my weekly updates. Don'tmiss an episode of the podcast.
(12:59):
And now go lead your team. AndI'll see you next time. Thank
you
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