Include and enthuse

How does it feel when work has been dumped on you without consultation or inclusion? Not great, I bet? We know that it will happen sometimes, but when it is the norm, it creates demotivation. People are social creatures who like to be included. We want to be inspired. We want to work towards something greater than ourselves and when we are emotionally bought in, we generally become motivated to achieve. 

In her book, Conversational Intelligence, Judith Glaser highlights leadership behaviours that can open up motivation or shut it down.  

Leaders who operate on the left, often supress or deplete their people's best work and best thinking. Those who consciously work on the right multiply the capabilities and motivations of their people. 

Exclude vs Include 

When people feel excluded from a discussion, meeting or social gathering, they feel rejected or creates demons in their heads about why they have been excluded. Often, we simply forget to include others as we are focused on outcome, speed and efficiency. However, we you choose to include, the performance and motivation of your team increases. Now let’s be realistic, you can’t involve everyone all of the time. Decisions happen at senior levels; however, you can include others in the solution. Co-creating solutions through inclusion and open dialogue means people buy in and get on board quickly.  

How can you be more inclusive in decisions within your organisation? 

Limit vs Expand 

Rather than limiting access to information or shutting people down in meetings, can you expand? For example, if someone comes up with an idea in a meeting or asks a question, rather than saying, “Ok great, let’s move on”, or “This isn’t the right time to discuss that”, try, “Great, can you tell me more”, or “That needs some working through, can you share your thoughts now or would you like to take some time to discuss this further outside this meeting?”. I have also heard managers say, “It’s not your paygrade to know that!”

Just think about that sentence for a moment, how belittled would you feel if someone said that to you? Limiting not only shames others, it creates resentment, creates fear and uncertainty and negative emotions. You want your people to feel included and like they matter, so wherever possible, choose to include and expand.