Enhancing Employee Engagement Through Connection, Clarity, and Commitment Based Personal Development Program

Abstract

Managers are currently becoming even more overwhelmed with the expectations set on them by the directors. Endless meetings, and non-stop emails have taken away all the managers' time and resources. This leaves nothing behind for the managers to focus on their team's personal and professional growth, which has proven to be a critical part of success of a business organization (Federman, 2009). This paper provides a simple and practical framework for time-crunched managers to guide them in enhancing employee engagement through participative management.

The Personal Development Program (PDP) aims to improve and ensure continued effective performance through engaging leadership and continuous coaching. It is based on the 3Cs Model (Yuniarto, 2017) of Connection, Clarity, and Commitment. Connection is where the Coach and Coachee really get to know each other, and use that knowledge to work off each other's strengths. Clarity is where we clearly define the areas and strategy for development. And finally, Commitment is where the team dedicates their resources to ensure professional and personal growth, which in turn will support the business' growth.

Improvements in employee engagement come in many shapes and forms, this may include results such as increased number of innovations, reduced waste in workflows, and better business performance. But most importantly, these improvements come not from the manager's carrot & stick program, instead they come from improved sense of ownership, and dedication to the company's mission. Because if you take good care of your people, your people will take good care of you (Werner & Desimone, 2011).

This paper provides the PDP framework along with real-case examples of how it was applied. PDP provides a more humanistic approach towards professional development and business performance enhancement. It is a human resource development framework that moves away from the 'command and control' model, and puts more emphasis on attracting engagement from team members, hence creating a positive growth-focused workplace. Its practical nature will be a suitable solution for the time-crunched manager looking for an efficient-yet- impactful employee engagement initiative.