It’s a reasonable bet that no-one in the western world missed the passing of Steve Jobs. News bulletins, front pages and (seemingly) every online forum in the universe eulogised the man who must be the most respected business leader of his time. As engagement afficionados, we can’t help but look on and ask: what is the value of such a titan to organisations internally, and can such people actually be manufactured?

The answers probably are: immeasurable, and no. There isn’t a training regime on earth that turns staid bean-counters into charismatic game-changers. But there are plenty of things we can do to improve the leadership assets we have – without turning our bosses into glassy-eyed automata.

Is it important? Hugely. Leadership is an infinitely greater influencer of employee behaviour than any other factor. Because, hey, ultimately we all work for people. So what can we do to leverage a leadership asset for engagement?

1. Train the boss. As Bill Quirke put it, there are four key qualities a leader needs to display to fulfill their engagement remit. He calls it the FAME model: FOCUS (concentrating on the issues and stories that matter), ARTICULATION (finding a good way to encapsulate the strategy), MODELLING (behaving as s/he would have others behave) and EMPATHY (recognising that not everyone in the organisation shares his/her way of seeing the world.) Get your leader drilled in these four, and you’re halfway there.

2. Refine the boss’s messages. Now, does the leader have an elevator speech? Is his/her blog engaging (or even intelligible)? Do they tweet or Yammer? Even if techno satisfaction cuts little ice over at your place, think about the content going into the old school approaches of speeches, telecons or town halls. We wouldn’t suggest over-polishing leadership messages, but they should always be edited in such a way that they are relevant, engaging, and not infringing any major international laws.

3. Choose the communication media carefully. What are the best channels through which the leader should communicate? If they write well, a blog might be the best idea. If they’re stronger with the spoken word, then video updates are cheaper and easier to deliver than they’ve ever been. Could you create a strategy movie that’s so impactful people want to forward it to colleagues? Increasingly, employees expect leadership communications to be two-way. Is it best to do this in a live Q&A, where the leader thinks on their feet, or online, where both questions and answers can be moderated?

Anyway, that’s what we think. Succeed in these three areas and your leaders might not be Steve Jobs, but they won’t be nut-jobs or jobsworths either. And of course, you know where to come when you need help with that message or media creation.