When you take over a new team, the way you engage your people early on sets the tone for everything that follows. From building trust to setting direction, knowing how to engage a team from day one is one of the most important leadership skills you’ll use.
Here are six strategies to help you lead with clarity, purpose and connection — and start building a highly engaged, motivated team.
1. Get Off to a Good Start: Leading vs Managing
It’s easy to fall into task-mode when taking over a new team — focusing on systems, deadlines and workflows. But engagement doesn’t grow from being managed. It grows from being led.
Great leaders focus on inspiring belief, building relationships, and creating clarity around purpose. They give people something to believe in — not just something to do.
Tip: Ask yourself: “What do I want this team to say about my leadership in three months?”
2. Have a Purpose, Do Meaningful Work
People engage when their work feels connected to something bigger. In technical and scientific roles, it’s easy to get caught in the detail — but stepping back to show the impact of the team’s work can be hugely motivating.
A sense of purpose drives ownership, especially when people understand how their role contributes to solving real-world problems.
Tip: Share the “why” behind what you’re asking the team to do — even if it seems obvious to you.
3. You Can’t Escape It: Performance Management
While performance reviews may sound clinical, performance conversations are essential for engagement. They create clarity, reduce anxiety, and give team members a sense of progress.
The key is to make performance conversations regular, forward-focused, and personalised. Set clear expectations early — and revisit them often.
Tip: Keep it simple. Use 1:1s to coach, unblock, and reinforce goals, not just check progress.
4. Self-Awareness: Yours and Your Team’s
Leadership starts with self-awareness. The more you understand how you operate — and how you’re perceived — the better you can engage others.
Equally, helping your team build their own self-awareness creates stronger collaboration, communication, and ownership. Personality profiling tools like Insights Discovery can open up valuable team conversations.
Tip: Model self-reflection openly. When you make a mistake, own it. When something goes well, share why.
5. Communicate… Communicate… Communicate
According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement1. One of the biggest differentiators? Frequent, two-way communication.
New team members don’t just need information — they need a space to ask, challenge, and contribute. That only happens if communication is clear, regular, and human.
Tip: Make yourself accessible. And when in doubt, overcommunicate — then listen more.
6. Show Appreciation
Recognition doesn’t have to be loud or formal. Often, a simple thank you or specific feedback goes further than any incentive programme.
If your team has been under pressure, starting from a place of appreciation builds trust — and reminds people that their work matters.
Tip: Recognise both results and behaviours. What gets acknowledged gets repeated.
FAQs: Engaging New Teams
Conclusion
If you want to know how to engage a team, start with the basics: be clear, be curious, and be human. People want to do meaningful work, be treated with respect, and know where they stand.
Early engagement isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about consistently showing up in a way that builds confidence, motivation and momentum.