Right Management recently conducted a survey of more than 650 senior leaders and human resource professionals to identify the most important leadership practice fundamental to achieving business goals during tough times. More than half (51%) of respondents cited “engaging employees to ensure organizational alignment and commitment” as being the most important leadership practice.

So how do you engage employees, or re-engage them? Lessons from the field of positive psychology indicate the importance of paying attention to how people feel before you focus on what you want them to do.  In her book, Exuberance, John Hopkins psychiatry professor Kay Redfield Jamison writes, “In times of adversity, inspired leadership offers energy and hope where little or none exist.”

In tough times, effective leaders help other regain feelings of hopefulness, optimism, and energy.  One example of a leader who did this successfully was Winston Churchill.  Lord Franks, England’s ambassador to the United States after WWII, heard Churchill speak many times.  After one of these occasions Franks wrote, “I came away more happy about things.  He dispelled our misgivings and set at rest our fears; he spoke of his aim and his purpose so that we knew that somehow it would be achieved. He gave us faith.”

If you lead an organization, department, or team it is equally important that you begin the process of re-engaging your employees by first acknowledging the emotions people are feeling, and then communicating in a way that rebuilds hope and enthusiasm.  For specific tips on how to do this, download my free e-books, Transforming Anxiety into Energy and Leading After Layoffs.