Why Engage?...John, George, and Ringo). In concert, he is tireless, with no need to work another day...

Why Engage?an excerpt from the forthcoming book

I-ENGAGE: YOUR PERSONAL ENGAGEMENT ROADMAPby Bob Kelleher

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© 2015 by Bob Kelleher. All Rights Reserved.

WHY ENGAGE?An Excerpt from the Forthcoming Book

I-Engage: Your Personal Engagement Roadmap by Bob Kelleher.

WHY ENGAGE?Do you wake up every Monday raring to go to work, full of new ideas,

confident that you’ll be able to implement them, and passionate about what

you do? If so, would you like to stay that way? And if not, doesn’t that

sound pretty great?

Engagement is the key. Back in 2003, global consulting firm Towers Perrin (now Towers Watson) identified

and defined an intriguing concept that would go on to revolutionize the way companies thought about their

most important asset: their employees. Called “employee engagement,” it was originally loosely defined as “the

capture of discretionary effort.” Discretionary effort, simply put, means going above and beyond at one’s job, or

putting in additional effort, because one wants to do so.

Companies learned that over time, their bottom lines would benefit by creating and sustaining a culture that

resulted in employees giving their all to the job, rather than just doing what was necessary to get the job done.

While it may sound like common sense, employee engagement represents a fairly radical shift from the old goal

of “employee satisfaction.” Companies learned that just throwing perks at their staff didn’t necessarily improve

business results or help them retain their high performers. In fact, employee satisfaction can be actively bad for

the bottom line, creating complacency and lethargy. It has been said that organizations whose goal it is to satisfy

employees end up building cultures of employee entitlement, not employee satisfaction.

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Some common characteristics of an engaged culture include:

Doesn’t that sound like a place you’d like to work? Unfortunately, chances are that many if not most of my

readers don’t… yet. Despite evidence that it works1, and many companies’ investing significantly in employee

engagement over the past decade2, a 2015 Gallup study still places employee disengagement in North America

1 The Engaged Company Stock Index tracks long-term impacts of engagement on companies’ stock market performance. From October 1, 2012 to January 31, 2015, engaged companies have outperformed the S&P 500 by 22.4 percentage points (McBassi & Company and Enterprise Engagement Alliance Engaged Company Stock Index [2015]. Enterprise Engagement Alliance. Online: accessed March 9, 2015.)

2 An estimated $720 million annually, expected to rise to $1.5 billion (LaMotte, Susan [2015]. “Employee Engagement Depends on What Happens Outside of the Office.” Harvard Business Review. Online: accessed March 9, 2015.)

• Acommonpurposeandmutualcommitmentbetweenemployerandemployee.

• Employeeswhofeelvaluedfortheircontributions,andbelievethattheirworkmatters.

• Clarityaboutanorganization’spurpose(its“why”).

• Strongbondsbetweenteammembersandsupervisors.

• Atop-to-bottomunderstandingoftheorganization’semployervalueproposition(thereasonpeoplewanttoworkthere).

• Active,effective,andtransparentcommunicationupanddownthemanagementchain.

• Employeeswhoareencouragedtothinkandactasbusinesspeople,andwhoarecultivatedtothrive.

• Acollaborativeworkenvironmentthatfosterscamaraderieandfriendship.

• Employeeswhohaveanemotionalconnection(theheart)alongwithanintellectualconnectiontotheorganization(thehead).

• Policiesandsystemsthatsupporttrust,collaboration,andempowerment.

• Atrustingandempatheticleadershipteam.

• Clearperformancestandardsandgoals,backedbyacultureofaccountabilityandrewards.

• Asensethatcompensationandperksareatleastmarket-based,andfairlydistributed.

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at a whopping 68%3. That means only 32% of people on this continent are engaged! Even the purported “best

places to work” – Google, Intuit, Salesforce, etc. – don’t have anything even close to 100% engagement figures.

Why, when so much effort has been made on the part of companies to shift from employee satisfaction to

employee engagement, is this the case?

As the founder and CEO of the Employee Engagement Group, the author

of three books on employee engagement, and a global engagement

“evangelist” (i.e., keynote speaker) to thousands of audience attendees,

I know that engagement is an intrinsically important part of a company’s

culture and health. As it benefits the overall economy, it also benefits

society and the individual. But I have come to realize that like the many

companies I have helped with employee engagement, or those who

picked up best practices during my talks, or even readers of my books,

there has been a blind spot: the majority of my work (in fact the majority of the work of most engagement

thought leaders, researches, consultants, authors, and academics) has been focused on the workplace.

Sure, I and others reinforce the mutual commitment between the employer and the employee. I emphasize

the employee’s responsibility to make the company successful, and the organization’s responsibility to help

employees reach their potential. But the vast majority of the research and findings on this subject center on

what an organization (or its leaders, or the culture, or the systems and policies) should do to engage employees.

“Of course that’s where the attention has been focused,” you may be thinking. “If it’s all about how to engage

me at my job, where else would you focus?” The problem is that, if you think about it, you will recognize that

you bring your whole self – your work and non-work experiences and circumstances – to the job. That means

that to date, companies have only been focused on engaging about half of each person they have on staff. Seen

in that light, no wonder the numbers are bad!

3 Adkins, Amy (2015) “Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014.” Gallup. Online: accessed March 24, 2015.

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Think about it. Even at work, your level of engagement is dependent on a variety of factors: your confidence

in senior leadership and your supervisor in particular; your connection to the company’s mission, vision, and

values; your salary and benefits; your friends at work; the level of pride you take in your actual contribution.

Although technology makes it increasingly difficult, it is possible to leave these things at the office when you sign

off for the day. What isn’t possible is to leave what happens at home at the threshold of the office: your health

and that of your children, or partner, or parents; your relationships with these important people and other non-

work friends; your personal values and intrinsic motivators; any stress you feel over your financial wellbeing.

If your work commute is 1.5 hours in either direction, do you even have the pure stamina to give “above and

beyond” effort during the actual workday, even if you wanted to? If your partner is battling an illness, or your

child is struggling in school, or your parent is moving into assisted care, these worries are going to erode your

engagement at work, even if you love your job. This in turn can create worries that you’re not performing well,

that you won’t get that raise/ promotion because your performance has flatlined… or worse, nosedived.

“Well,” you might still protest, “if an organization is doing everything right – great brand, visionary and empathetic

leadership, a healthy culture, caring supervisors, and amazing work conditions – then employee engagement is

a natural outcome, right?”

Well, not necessarily, especially if you’re working in a job that does not relate to your passion. For instance,

Google can offer you all the free meals you can eat in a life time, and amazing benefits and perks, but if your

passion is to be a full time jazz musician, you will struggle to find discretionary effort for your employer. Your

own engagement is personal, and for some, there it has little to do with one’s current job, regardless of employer,

leadership, rewards, or work conditions. These deeply personal factors, as well as fixed traits about you such

as your age, ethnicity, and gender identity, are cornerstones of your life, and they may be affecting your overall

engagement at least as much as the work-only factors.

We can roughly illustrate these two interrelated “halves” of engagement like this:

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It’s interesting to note that health coverage and on-site day care, both of which have big impacts on the “life”

side, are the benefits most consistently valued by employees4. Clearly, it’s not about beanbag chairs in the

lounge or the Friday beer cart. What really boosts engagement is evidence that the company supports them in

their non-work challenges: in this case, their and their families’ health and wellbeing. In fact, studies show that

although trust is the number one driver of enterprise-wide engagement, the most important way a leader can

demonstrate trust is to show empathy to their employees5.

4 Crowley, Mark C. (2015) “Why Engagement Happens In Employees’ Hearts, Not Their Minds.” Fast Company. Online: ac-cessed March 9, 2015.

5 Kenexa (2013). Employee Engagement Index Scores, WorkForce Trends Report: 33,000 Global Employees in 28 Countries

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Work/Life Balance: It’s Not Good Versus EvilMany companies strive to offer “work/life balance,” and for many employees, this is a goal too – one made more

difficult, as I mentioned above, by the prevalence of technology blurring the boundaries that separate your

“work” and your “life”. But there is often a misconception that the balance is between a bad thing (work) and

a good thing (life)6. For a truly engaged individual, that line is blurred or nonexistent. Take one of my favorite

examples, Sir Paul McCartney, formerly of The Beatles. At 72, he is still a thriving musician, collaborating over the

years with a diverse group of artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Elvis Costello to Nirvana to Kanye West

(not to mention the three lads named

John, George, and Ringo). In concert, he

is tireless, with no need to work another

day of his life. I think we can rest assured

that Sir Paul is not in it for the money, nor

does he consider his life’s work a chore to

be avoided. Rather, he likely considers it

an integrated part of who he is as a person

– and that is what it means to be engaged.

Why else would he (or Bruce Springsteen for that matter) travel the world playing three-hour concerts, when

concertgoers would be more than happy with a shorter show? Talk about discretionary effort…

Of course, for those of us who aren’t famous, wealthy musicians, that level of engagement may seem like a pipe

dream. I’d like to give a second example that I hope also resonates.

In Lowell, MA, I had the pleasure to meet local Del “Dogman” Christman, a local celebrity who manages the

Lowell Spinners’ minor league baseball clubhouse7. Overcoming a deeply troubled past, Christman earned his

nickname selling hot dogs at Alumni Stadium. He is a colorful figure with Hulk-Hogan-like, shoulder-length

blonde hair, many tattoos, and a firmly established persona that includes barking and a “Who Let The Dogs Out”

6 Of course this isn’t true across the board. Many of us have known a person who has a limited or miserable home life, and who throws him- or herself wholeheartedly into work because that is more important to them.

7 The Spinners are the short-season Class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

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ringtone. The Dogman once sold 488 dogs in a single night8. Locally famous, he even has his own “bobble-head”

dolls available for purchase.

When the former clubhouse manager quit

in 2000, general manager Shawn Smith

offered the Dogman the position. It was

in this capacity that I met him. With all his

eccentricities, I can honestly say that I have

rarely met an individual more engaged in his

job. He takes pride in keeping the clubhouse

spotless and acts as a sort of surrogate

parent figure for the players, scolding them

when necessary but always there with a word of encouragement. His love of the sport of baseball and of his

involvement with it virtually bursts from every pore and infuses each of his signature barks with personality. His

passion, just as with Paul McCartney, became his occupation!

This is not a nine-to-fiver. This is not a person who dreads going to work in the morning, who puts in the bare

minimum of effort required to escape notice, who’s only in it for the paycheck. Del “Dogman” Christman is

engaged.

Maybe not all of us can be Sir Paul. Maybe the Dogman is

an easier, albeit quirkier, standard. The point I’d like to make

is that if most of us view the work side of the balanced

equation as bad, that’s roughly 2,100 “bad” hours per year!

What a miserable way to spend one’s adult life!

It doesn’t have to be that way.

8 His hot dog concoctions were also named after dog breeds: a golden retriever is a dog with mustard, while a bloodhound is one with ketchup and an Irish setter one with relish. (Prewitt, Alex [2012]. “Lowell Spinners clubhouse manager found seren-ity.” Boston Globe. Online: accessed March 9, 2015.)

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But What About Me?With this book, I hope to assist a diverse group of dis-or under-engaged people that are now a part of, or even

those about to enter, the workforce. Are you:

• Feelingtrappedatyourjob,unsurewhethertostayormakeachange?

• Arecenthighschoolorcollegegraduatewithoutmuchideaofhowtofindthejobyouwant,orofwhatcompromisesmightbeappropriate?

• Returningtoworkaftermaternityleaveorsabbaticalandfindingithardtofindthelevelofinterestyouoncehad?

• Stayinginadisengagingpositionoutoffear(becauseyouneedthepaycheck),lackofconfidence(unsureifyourskillsaremarketable)orcomplacency(”Ittakestimetofindajob,andreally,alljobsareasbadastheoneI’vegot.”)?

• Lockedintosome“velvethandcuffs?9”

• Feelingbored,lethargic,orpassionlessinyourcurrentjob?

• Activelylookingforajob,butfindingyourselflackingtheskills,education,orattitudethatappealstohiringmanagersinyourfield?

If any of the above challenges sound familiar or relatable, this book is for you. It aims to help you move out of

the apathy or helplessness you may be feeling, to take control over your own engagement and thus your own

career path.

If you are a manager of people, this book may also be for you if you are experiencing disengagement personally

or if you are concerned about levels of engagement among your team10. As I pointed out above, it’s quite likely

that to date, you have been dealing with 50% or less of the factors that are involved in the engagement of each

9 This can be particularly difficult if you’re a public sector employee with a pension, or in the private sector with stock options or some other extrinsic reason to stay. Although born of employers’ and unions’ good intentions, these “retention tools” encourage highly disengaged employees to stay. A few years back, I ran into a friend who works for a municipality who un-derscored the futility of this “satisfaction model:” he boasted, “I hate my job, but if I hang in there for another seven years, I’ll get 80% of my pay at retirement!” I’d venture to guess that any public he serves is reaping the “rewards” of this attitude.

10 Managers, executives and officers had the highest levels of engagement in 2014 at 38.4%, according to Gallup (Adkins, Amy [2015]. “Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014.” Gallup. Online: accessed March 10, 2015.)

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person you manage. Look for callouts throughout the book that will help you to better consider the whole

person: the individual beyond the job. You are on the front lines of a new, more holistic way of thinking about

engagement.

As I’ll discuss in Chapters 11 and 15 of this book, I believe employees with significant engagement challenges

outside of work have a responsibility to make their managers aware of their personal circumstances, and to

work with them to make appropriate adjustments in tasks and/or expectations. (As someone who has worked

with thousands of leaders over the years, I have discovered that even the most feared and authoritative leaders

have at least a smidgen of empathy in their DNA.) Conversely, I believe that managers have a responsibility to

create an atmosphere of empathy and trust in order for employees to feel comfortable approaching them.

Taking ControlIt is possible to be a person who looks forward to at least most of his or her workday. To get to that stage

requires some work, however. When your engagement levels are low, it can be tempting to blame the job or

the boss, or the recent merger or policy change, or the budget freeze. But individuals have to truly reflect

and determine how much of their disengagement is work-related, and how much is life-related. Though there

is definitely much to be said for finding the right fit for yourself personally so that the “work” half of your

engagement can be optimized. That being said, if you are dis- or under-engaged, there are a number of proactive

strategies that you can pursue that take the whole of your being – not just your “work self” – into account.

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This book will help you explore:

• Aseriousinventoryofwhatmakesyoutick.Thiscanrangefromthevaluesyouholdmostdeartoyour“intrinsicmotivators:”driverssuchasachievement,independence,fairness,esteem,affiliation,andauthority.

• Yourpersonalgoals.Whataretheobstaclesthatarekeepingyoufromreachingthem?Aretheseobstaclesexternalorinternal?Whatcanyoudotoovercomeorcircumventthem?

• Howwellyourskillsmaptothemarket.Theremaynotbeamarketforthethingsyoulovetodobest,butthatdoesn’tmeanyoucan’tbehappyatwork.Areyourskillsuptosnuffforthejobyouwanttohave?Ifnot,it’stimetodustthemofforlearnnewones.

• Thecharacteristicshiringmanagersareseeking.Believeitornot,inmostindustries,yourbehaviorsandtraitswillbeagreaterbarometerofsuccessorfailureinanygivenpositionthanyourskills,education,oryearsofexperience.

• Theimportanceof“stayinginbeta.”Evenifyouarecurrentlyveryfulfilledinyourwork,it’simportanttoperiodicallycheckinwithyourownlevelsofengagement.IfI-Engagegetsonemessageacross,themostimportantoneisit’sthatengagementisnotallabouttheworkplace.Youhavearesponsibilityforyourownengagement.Youneedtostayflexible,continuetodevelopandlearnnewskills,remainmarketable,manageyourfinances,andconsideryourcareerandskillsnever“fullycooked.”Technology,globalization,outsourcing,andotherfactorscanmakesomecareersobsolete(trygettingalivecustomerservicerepresentativeonthephonethesedays).Thinkingofyourcareerasacontinuousworkinprogressmightpreventitfrombecomingthenextfaxmachinemanufacturer.

• Findingengagementatwork,butnotnecessarilywithinyour“job.”It’spossibletobeengagedevenifthejobyouaredoingisnotfullyleveragingallofyourskills.Compensatoryvalueslikefriendsatwork,adeepconnectiontotheorganization’spurposeandvalues,futuregrowthpotential,orevenashortornonexistentcommutecanbeenoughattimes–justbewatchfulandpreparedtomovestrategicallywhennecessary.

• Findingtheworkplacethatisbestalignedwithyourwholeself.Onceyouhavethoroughlyassessedwhatengagesyou(andwhatyou’repassionateabout),youarebetterequippedtofindagoodfit.

• Communicatingyourengagementneedstomanagement.NooneshouldbecometheworkplaceBoyWhoCriedWolf,butifsomethinginyourpersonallifeisadverselyaffectingyourperformanceyouhaveadutytocommunicatewithyoursupervisor.Comepreparedwithaplan–yourproactivitywillbeappreciated.

• Gainingawiderdegreeofchoiceandfreedom.Marketableskills,an“IQuit”fund,andcontinuedlearninghelpto“keepyouinbeta”andpreventyoufrombecomingtrappedduetolackofoptions.

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We in the employee engagement field have spent ample time and energy helping organizations and leaders reap

the benefits of engagement. It’s time that the lens be widened to include employees in their totality. Engagement

is good for everyone: the individual and the company; disengagement is a constraint at both the professional

and personal levels. With I-Engage, I hope to empower anyone who feels helpless to take control of their own

careers, and become happier and more fulfilled as a result, while also helping leaders and organizations better

understand their role in engaging the whole person.

Even if you’re unemployed, underemployed, overworked, or underpaid, you are not powerless. Chances are that

the tools you need to widen your “freedom margin” are within your grasp. Consider this book your roadmap

to finding them and using them to their – and your – best potential.

—

Why Engage?...John, George, and Ringo). In concert, he is tireless, with no need to work another day...

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