Looking to pop icon Lady Gaga as a potential role model for engagement might seem odd. But, if you are serious about transforming your engagement levels at work, you need bold thinking.

Lady Gaga called her multimillion-strong army of fans “Little Monsters” – and they loved it: the definition, that sense of belonging, that confirmation that they have been seen and appreciated in return for their investment of passion. One research study interviewing her monsters found that “Identification as a Monster… moves beyond an interest in Lady Gaga's music…their interest in Lady Gaga [has become] ‘a way of life.’”² Because they feel she is interested in each of them, and she creates a feeling of closeness through social connections (reciprocal communication – despite the vast scale), Lady Gaga's fans are among the most engaged of any popular artist. It's the kind of passion and devotion employers and managers dream of.

But perhaps what really sets Gaga apart from her peers is her belief in how she should use her influence, and it is this that makes her an interesting model for engagement. In her early days of popularity, she was often quoted as saying that what drives her is making a difference, rather than making money.

It’s what you do when you're at the top to inspire and influence the people that lift you…I have a relentless pursuit in me to give everything in me to my fans.

Successful leaders follow the same mantra, understanding that good things will follow if you look after your people. They also understand their people make them successful. It might be common sense and commonly talked about, but it's not common practice yet.

Beware Flying Monkeys!

“Stand back! I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them!” Remember the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz? How many times have you felt someone in your organization – a boss or maybe even yourself – threatening frightening consequences if people don't fall into line?

In the not-too-distant past, some managers got their jobs done by using flying monkey power as their primary management tool: the ever-present, seldom-spoken threat that lay before you if you didn't do as the boss required.

Flying monkeys yielded their power using statements beginning with “If we don't…” and ending with “…then this will happen.” Alternatively, they might invoke someone else's flying monkeys: “Sam wants this done (or else!).”

Unfortunately, flying monkeys are still summoned today. But do we think that requiring things to be done because “we report this to our board” or “my boss needs this done so you should do it” will in any way engage them? We know it will not. In fact, each time a manager does this, he reduces his leadership credibility – his street cred. Building street cred is the ultimate compliment for someone who manages to engage.

Volunteering to Do More

If creating volunteerism – getting people to volunteer their discretionary effort – is your aim, flying monkeys are not your allies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw teams come together to do remarkable things for the good of their organizations and their communities. They didn't wait. They felt the call to a cause. We should be looking for ways to create this feeling, this sense of “we're in it together” as a genuine cultural attribute in our businesses all the time. Postpandemic, we want people to step up as they do when they volunteer for causes, charities, or to coach the junior football team – where simply knowing they are of value is enough to energize them and unleash their passion to help.

Volunteerism shouldn't need to be coerced.

Engagement Kicks in When Flying Monkeys Are Kicked Out

As we come on to the how of engendering engagement with an aim to achieve volunteerism, let's summarize the personal challenges – beyond flattening the flying monkeys – this will involve for managers. Understanding to change the way other people feel about work, you may need to change how you feel about work.

• Be prepared to be engaged yourself. What state are you in? This is paramount. You can't ignite enthusiasm in others if you yourself don't possess the drive for a better work life. You need to lead the way.
• Consider how others view you. What do they know you for? What reputation do you think you have as a manager? An easy way to determine what you are known for is to write down what -ability you have – reliability, accountability, dependability, irritability?
• Be prepared to understand how you influence. Are you guilty of summoning flying monkeys? Understand that what you do by day goes home with people at night. Your actions as the boss have a greater impact on your people than any other aspect of their working lives, even above pay.
• Prepare to see work and people differently – change your vantage point. Whatever is happening in the external market, and however acute the need to control costs, can you accept that a brighter future for the business starts with people feeling brighter about their work? Are you willing to reboot your perspective and discover what you and your team can do for one another?
• Be prepared to question everything you know and do. The very nature of business is different today, so the management systems you use, the management processes you rely on, the management behavior you display, even the culture you have tried to embed in your teams, all need to be reviewed.
• Finally, don't panic. As much as your panic attacks might have stemmed from pandemic attacks, don't let that be seen. Your calmness is the kindness your teams need.

Engage Yourself

Clearly, it's not just the business environment that has changed. People at work have changed too. While many are weary at what the next crisis might bring, they expect you to be engaged: that you are sensitive and responsive to their needs as humans. Positively influencing their experience and contribution, it can't simply be ‘you are lucky to have a job’.

At a business level, this means taking these steps:

1. Look for game-changing ways to inspire rather than manage people. Remarkable results come from environments that allow people to be remarkable.
2. Jointly agree expectations. Decide on performance, targets, mindset, aspirations, together.
3. Create a culture where people can flourish, not stay in their boxes. Recognize people for their talents, not their status.
4. See people for who they are. People are a product of their environment: the more you learn about people the better chance of helping them thrive.
5. Invite opinions. People who are fully present at work won't be passive. Harness their ideas to create better solutions. Check your ego.
6. Be willing to explain decisions. People who care about their jobs want to understand and feel part of what's going on. Leveling with people increases their sense of inclusion, understanding, and self-worth.
7. Reevaluate current levels of influence. In an online context, vlogger Sarah Austin describes three characteristics of influence: behavior, social capital, and a likable personality. The most prolific test of a leader is whether, even with no people reporting to them, they can influence people to stand alongside them and achieve remarkable results.
8. Translate objectives into steps to be taken. People need to know how to map a route. This is what I call “turning vision into verbs and purpose into plans.” Guide the map, but let people be free to determine what needs to be done on the journey.
9. Adapt to higher expectations. Employees increasingly know that their employers need them as much as they need the work, and their expectations have risen as a result. Rise up to meet them.
10. Address attitude and poor performance. Having a no-jerks policy is one of the single greatest things you can do for your people and your own well-being. Tolerating attitude and toxic personalities are a multiplier in a negative direction.
11. Realize that employees may actually be ahead of the game. Employees are often in a better position to see the changes that are needed. So be ready to let your people stride out in front of you.
12. Move away from the usual suspects. Invite new faces, front-line heroes, people who don't usually sit at your table or connect to your Zoom room. You get a multiplier: they engage, you learn.
13. Know when to lead and when to get out of the way. People need to be free to get on with their jobs. Give clear expectations and let them do their job.
14. Rethink job titles. Google didn't have a HR department: it had “People Operations.”
15. Never enact your job title. Invoking your title is a flying monkey.
16. Let people have a say about who leads them. People are more likely to rally around those who make them feel part of something bigger.
17. Reengineer management indicators and measures. Include the MI-9.
18. Lead @ the speed of change. You need to be dynamic and agile. Moving fast is only bad if your people can't keep up. Then you need to review your people needs – is it a development challenge or are they the wrong people?
19. Develop a rich sense of community. When businesses provide an environment and infrastructure where new connections can flourish, the network effect kicks in – multiplying your results.
20. Use all the tools in the digital workforce box. Social and collaboration platforms are a must. Self-service platforms can empower and energize.
21. Rapidly prototype and embrace failure as a learning opportunity. In an age of rapid innovation and overnight market disruption, businesses are learning that rapid prototyping is a must. Even if only 1 idea in 10 flies.
22. Provide employee rewards in many forms. It isn't just money that talks. Personal development, along with a host of other incentives, must be considered and matched to the needs of individuals. But be sure to identify them as table stakes, not engagers. Table stakes rarely engage, but when absent can disengage. Know the difference.
23. Collaborate across borders. Market conditions change quickly; companies need to cast the net wide when seeking fresh ideas and new solutions. They must source ideas and abilities from wherever the best fit might be – even if it's outside the business.
24. Establish closer employee-employer relationships. They should be less transactional, more meaningful, and more flexible. Certainly, more transparent. Managers need to develop the ability to rapidly reteam and form teams, guide and lead at the fringe, not just the core – and make all relationships significant, to get the best out of everyone.
25. Make the mission to engage an imperative for everyone. Everyone stands to benefit, so make everyone part of the solution.

Go HeadsUp

If you really want to build street cred, you've got to go all in, really engage with people. To kick that off is easy – take your nose out of your device and connect socially, even if you need to be physically distant! Go HeadsUp!

The past decade may have flattened the organization structure, reducing the need for traditional supervision, but the need for front-line leaders to connect has never been more essential. HeadsUp leadership is safer, more engaging, and more productive. It's also more human. With the simple 1.5.30 concept at its heart, it teaches leaders that checking in is more valuable than checking up, and routine brings comfort to everyone.

If you want to go HeadsUp and use 1.5.30, here you go:

• One: How is your day going? Check in once a day for a quick health check and catch-up. What'sUp? Howzit going?
• Five: How is your week going? Meet, Team, or Zoom for at least 30 minutes once a week. Make this about progress: how the week went, what help people need, and how the following week will go. Coach where you can.
• Thirty: How is your job going? Have a meaningful face-to-face (or video) once a month to discuss how someone is feeling and performing. Coach and guide on how to keep leaning forward and achieving remarkable results.

HeadsUp is a call to action for leaders at every level. It focuses you on essential leadership skills – whether you're leading work from home or at your workplace, you need presence and vision, you need to be tech savvy, and to coach and influence. These need to be universally understood to help people step up in their work and achieve.

When I launched HeadsUp, I wasn't thinking of a global viral pandemic, I was thinking of a worldwide leadership engagement movement. I sent out a message to search for and spotlight HeadsUp leaders across the world, setting up a website www.headsup-today.com to capture these leaders and showcase the human side of the business. But today, it's a necessary movement. There is a need to look up from our technology, our reporting, and our devices and connect. We have a need to be socially connected, even if we have to be physically distant. Together apart. Our wellness depends on it. I'm urging everyone, get in the game and go HeadsUp.

A Total Ecosystem Approach

To truly and positively impact your teams, they need to behave their way into engagement. How a manager and leader behave has the most direct impact followed by the environment in which people work. Addressing the total ecosystem triggers behavior, and then engagement can follow: 2 Fs and 7 Cs. The multiplier comes from the total ecosystem approach. As we cover each letter in your scorecard, you'll start to see how they work in concert with one another to build an operating environment that enables engagement. In Chapter 4 we'll keep with the role of management as we explore how to embed fair trade into your business.