Why Engage?employeeengagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/I-Engage_Exce… · WHY ENGAGE? ... Cultivate an Abundance ... should do to engage employees. 1 The Engaged Company Stock

Why Engage?an excerpt from the forthcoming book

I-ENGAGE: YOUR PERSONAL ENGAGEMENT ROADMAPby Bob Kelleher

FULL BOOK CONTENTSABOUT THE AUTHOR .......................................................................................................................................................... xv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................................. xvi

PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................................................. xviv

WHY ENGAGE? ........................................................................................................................................................................ 1

Why (and How) We’re Disengaged ........................................................................................................................... 4

Key Engagement Factors ............................................................................................................................................11

But What About Me? ..................................................................................................................................................15

Taking Control .............................................................................................................................................................18

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: IT’S NOT GOOD VERSUS EVIL ............................................................................................23

The “Dogman” Example .............................................................................................................................................25

The “Phantom Tollbooth?” .........................................................................................................................................27

Happiness and the Whole Individual .......................................................................................................................28

A Look at the “Life” Side ...........................................................................................................................................32

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU? .....................................................................................................................................................51

Fixed and Variable Traits .............................................................................................................................................52

Motivation… From The Inside Out .........................................................................................................................54

Staying Authentic .........................................................................................................................................................72

WHAT’S YOUR ENGAGEMENT DILEMMA? ...................................................................................................................74

A Look at the “Work” Side .......................................................................................................................................77

You’re Not Powerless .................................................................................................................................................85

Putting the Pieces Together .......................................................................................................................................90

Are You on the Same “Map” As Your Employer? ...................................................................................................91

YOUR PERSONAL B.E2.S.T. ..................................................................................................................................................97

Some Examples, Positive and Negative ...................................................................................................................98

WhatBehaviorsandTraitsDefineHighPerformance? .....................................................................................102

Do You Have What It Takes? ....................................................................................................................................111

Know Your Differentiators ......................................................................................................................................115

Where’s Your “Natural Fit?” ....................................................................................................................................124

SETTING YOUR SIGHTS .....................................................................................................................................................126

Needs Analysis ...........................................................................................................................................................127

You (Probably) Have More Skills Than You Think! ..............................................................................................133

Now, Where to Send That Resume? .....................................................................................................................137

“So… What Do You Do For a Living?” .................................................................................................................144

“JUST A JOB?” ........................................................................................................................................................................145

Finding Purpose Where You Are Now ...................................................................................................................146

From “Just A Job” to an Engaging “Wiggly Line” .................................................................................................152

Knowing When That Job is Plenty... For Now .....................................................................................................156

WhatDefinesSuccess? ............................................................................................................................................160

Growing To Fit... or Outgrowing Your Current Position? .................................................................................164

WIDENING YOUR FREEDOM MARGIN .......................................................................................................................167

Pitfall #1: Deciding That What You Know Now is Enough ...............................................................................172

Pitfall #2: Neglecting Your “My Choice” Fund .....................................................................................................177

Pitfall #3: Complacency ............................................................................................................................................185

The 10 “Shalt Nots” ..................................................................................................................................................195

ARRIVE, GROW, REPEAT .....................................................................................................................................................199

Are You “In the Zone?” ............................................................................................................................................200

Ask, Learn, Teach ........................................................................................................................................................203

S.M.A.R.T. Goals .........................................................................................................................................................205

Cultivate an Abundance Mindset ...........................................................................................................................213

Be Proud to Be a Work In Progress! .....................................................................................................................217

The Engagement Accelerator ..................................................................................................................................218

INDEX ......................................................................................................................................................................................223

1

© 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. In the 1990s and early 2000s, an intriguing concept began to take shape which

revolutionized the way companies thought about their most important asset: their employees. Called “employee

engagement,”itwasoriginallylooselydefinedas“thecaptureofdiscretionaryeffort.”Discretionary effort means

going above and beyond at one’s job, or putting in additional effort – simply because one wants to do so.

Companieslearnedthatovertime,theirbottomlineswouldbenefitbycreatingandsustainingaculturethat

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 misguided 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 as

a goal can be actively bad for the bottom line, potentially leading to complacency and lethargy. Organizations

whose goal it is to satisfy employees end up building cultures of employee entitlement, not employee engagement.

2




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.

• Acommonpurposeandmutualcommitmentbetweenemployerandemployee.

• Employeeswhofeelvaluedfortheircontributions,andbelievethattheirworkmatters.

• Aclearlycommunicatedorganizationalpurpose(its“why”).

• Strongbondsbetweenteammembersandsupervisors.

• Anunderstandingoftheorganization’semployervalueproposition(thereasonpeoplewanttoworkthere).

• Active,effective,andtransparentcommunicationupanddownthemanagement/employeechain.

• Employeeswhoareencouragedtothinkandactasbusinesspeople,andwhoarecultivatedtothrive.

• Acollaborativeworkenvironmentthatfosterscamaraderieandfriendship.

• Employeeswhohaveanemotionalconnectiontotheorganization(their“hearts”areonboard)alongwithanintellectualconnection(their“heads”areinthegame).

• Policiesandsystemsthatsupporttrust,collaboration,andempowerment.

• Atrustingandempatheticleadershipteam.

• Clearperformancestandardsandgoals,backedbyacultureofaccountabilityandrewards.

• Employeeswhoarekeenonwhattheydoandactivelyseektobecomebetteratit–andmanagementthatsupportsthemintheirprofessionalgrowth.

• Asensethatcompensationandperksareatleastmarket-based,andfairlydistributedbasedoncontributions.

3




Why (and How) We’re DisengagedDespite evidence that employee engagement works,1 andmany companies’ investing significantly in it over

the past decade,2 a 2016 Gallup study still places employee disengagement in North America at a whopping 68

percent.3 That means only 32 percent of people on this continent are engaged! Even the purported “best places

to work” – Google, Costco, The Cheesecake Factory, etc. – don’t have anything even close to 100 percent

engagementfigures.Why,whensomuchefforthasbeenmadeonthepartofcompaniestoshiftfromemployee

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” (that is, keynote speaker) to thousands

of audience attendees, I know that engagement is an intrinsically

importantpartofaorganization’scultureandhealth.Asitbenefits

theoveralleconomy,italsobenefitssocietyandtheindividual.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 workshops, 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, researchers, 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 organization successful, and the organization’s responsibility to help

employeesreachtheirpotential.Butthevastmajorityoftheresearchandfindingsonthissubjectcenteron

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

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.)

3 Adkins, Amy (2015) “Employee Engagement in U.S. Stagnant in 2015.” Gallup. Online: accessed February 14, 2016.

4




“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 companies

have only been focused on engaging about half of each person they have on staff. Seen in that light, no wonder

engagement numbers continue to be low!

At any given time, a person’s engagement may be in decline or on the rise, depending on what is

happening in their non-work life.

We have been accustomed to think of employee engagement as having a baseline, with more engaged employees

giving above and beyond effort and disengaged employees putting in the bare minimum (and presumably dragging

engagementfiguresdownalongtheway):

Butinreality,anygivenindividual’sengagementwillfluctuateovertimedependingonavarietyoffactors:your

confidenceinseniorleadershipandyoursupervisorinparticular;yourconnectiontotheorganization’smission,

vision, andvalues; your salary andbenefits; your friendsatwork; your sense that youarebeing adequately

5




challenged;thelevelofprideyoutakeinyouractualcontribution.Althoughtechnologymakesitincreasingly

difficult,itispossibletoleavethesethingsattheofficewhenyousignofffortheday.Whatislesspossibleisto

leavewhathappensathomeatthethresholdoftheoffice:yourhealthandthatofyourchildren,orpartner,or

parents;yourrelationshipswiththeseimportantpeopleandothernon-workfriends;yourpersonalvaluesand

intrinsicmotivators;anystressyoufeeloveryourfinancialwellbeing.Orperhapssomethingassimpleasyour

morning commute.

If your morning work commute is 1.5 hours (or your commute home, for that matter), do you even have the

stamina to give “above and beyond” effort during the actual workday, even if you wanted to? Worse yet, 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

hasflatlined…orworse,nosedived.

6




This book is meant to encourage a bridge between one’s “work” and “life” selves. Throughout its pages, you will

findtools(yourRestStops)designedtohelpyoudojustthat.Let’sstartwithfindingyour personal engagement

baseline.

As an example, let’s follow an employee we will call Joe, plotting his weekly engagement peaks and valleys over

a four month period, compared with a manager’s own plotting of Joe. Perhaps he welcomed a new baby but is

now short on sleep. Perhaps he is now battling competing work and home priorities. He may have moved and

now has a longer commute, or no longer be motivated by his boss.

As you can imagine, a discussion between Joe and his manager would be a rich exercise, and an important way

to begin to bridge the work and life issues affecting Joe’s engagement.

UsingourfirstengagementroadmapRestStoponthefollowingpage,takeamomenttoevaluateyourcurrent

state with regards to your job (or to the project of changing jobs, working toward a promotion, or even just

starting out in the workplace). If you have a good relationship with your boss or supervisor, you might ask him/

her to plot you as well. (If not, I suggest you use this tool with someone who knows you well, to learn how

noticeable your “peaks and valleys” appear to others.)

JoeJoe’s Manager

TIME

PER

CEI

VED

EN

GA

GEM

ENT

* New baby born**Difficultysleeping*** Competing priorities + long commute****Babysleepingthroughthenight;freshandexcitingjobopportunities

*

**

***

****

7




Rest Stop #1: Your Baseline

As you begin your I-Engage journey, mark where you think you are as of today with an “X” or

indicatorofyourchoosing.Whatarethreefactorsinfluencingwhereyou’veplottedyourself?

1

2

3

4 6 8 10 12 1614

5 7 9 11 13 15 17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Threefactorsinfluencingmyengagementtoday:

1.

2.

3.

8




TIME

ENG

AG

EMEN

TKey Engagement FactorsPartofwhatmakesbeingamanagerdifficultisthatatanygiventime,employeesarealloperatingatdifferent

levels of personal and professional engagement. Experienced managers of people have learned over time that to

impact an overall team or organization’s performance, they need to move the collective team upward in spite of

theebbsandflowsofeachemployee’sprofessionalandpersonalengagement:

Critically, it’s not all about beanbag chairs in the lounge or the Friday beer cart! In many cases, what really boosts

engagement is evidence that the organization supports employees in their non-work challenges: especially

their and their families’ health and wellbeing.4 Although trust is the number one driver of enterprise-wide

engagement, the most important way a leader can demonstrate trust is to show empathy.5

“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?”

4 Crowley, Mark C. (2015). “Why Engagement Happens In Employees’ Hearts, Not Their Minds.” Fast Company. Online: accessed March 9, 2015.5 Kenexa (2013). Employee Engagement Index Scores, WorkForce Trends Report: 33,000 Global Employees in 28 Countries.

9




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

if you work for Google, the organization can offer you all the free meals you can eat in a lifetime, along with

amazingbenefitsandperks.Butifyourpassionistobeafulltimejazzmusician,youwillstruggletomaintain

discretionary effort for your employer over time.

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

leadership,rewards,orworkconditions.Thesedeeplypersonalfactors,aswellasfixedtraitsaboutyousuch

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 the two interrelated “halves” of engagement as depicted here, where you can see the

potential connections.

10




Weintheemployeeengagementfieldhavespentampletimeandenergyhelpingorganizationsandleadersreap

thebenefitsofengagement.It’stimethatthelensbewidenedtoincludeemployeesintheirtotality.Engagement

isgoodforeveryone:theindividualandthecompany;disengagementisaconstraintatboththeprofessional

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

careers,andbecomehappierandmorefulfilledasaresult,whilealsohelpingleadersandorganizationsbetter

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

tofindingthemandusingthemtotheir–andyour–bestpotential.

But What About Me?This book intends to assist a diverse group of dis-or under-engaged people that are now a part of (or about to

enter) the workforce. Are you:

• Feelingtrappedatyourjob,unsurewhethertostayormakeachange?

• Returningtoworkafterparentalleaveorsabbaticalandfindingithardtofindthelevelofinterestyouoncehad?

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

• Un-orunderemployedandstrugglingtogetbackontrack?

• Partoftherecentgrowinggroupof“BabyBoomers”whohavefoundtheysimplydon’twanttoretire?

• Lockedintosome“velvethandcuffs?”6

6 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 underscored 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 percent of my pay at retirement!” I’d venture to guess that any public he serves is reaping the “rewards” of this attitude.

1 1




• Feelingbored,lethargic,orpassionlessinyourcurrentjob?

• Activelylookingforajob,butfindingyourselflackingtheskills,education,orattitudethatappealstohiringmanagersinyourfield?

• Arecenthighschoolorcollegegraduatewithoutmuchideaofhowtofindthejobyouwant,orofwhatcompromisesmightbeappropriate?

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 is also for you. Perhaps you are experiencing disengagement

personally or are concerned about levels of engagement among your team.7AsIpointedoutabove,it’squite

likely that to date, you have been dealing with 50 percent or less of the factors that are involved in the

engagement of each person you manage. I believe that managers have a responsibility to create an atmosphere

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

As I’ll discuss in Chapters 8 and 9 of this book, I also believe that employees with 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. If I-Engage gets one message across,

the most important is that engagement is not entirely the responsibility of the employer or the boss. You, the

employee, have a responsibility for your own engagement.

Youneedtostayflexible,continuetodevelopandlearnnewskills,remainmarketable,manageyourfinances,and

consider that your career and skills are never “fully cooked.” Technology, globalization, outsourcing, and other

factors can make some careers obsolete (try getting a live customer service representative on the phone these

days). If you fear discussing engagement with your manager, I’d like to offer some encouragement. 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. As referenced earlier, empathy is the

number one way leaders build trust in their organizations, ranking even higher than integrity.8

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

8 Ibid, Kenexa, Employee Engagement Index Scores (2013).

12




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

requiressomework,however.Whenyourengagementlevelsarelow,itcanbetemptingtoblamethejobor

theboss,ortherecentmergerorpolicychange,orthebudgetfreeze.Butindividualshavetotrulyreflectand

determinehowmuchoftheirdisengagementiswork-related,andhowmuchislife-related.Thereisdefinitely

muchtobesaid forfindingtherightfit foryourselfpersonallysothatthe“work”halfofyourengagement

can be optimized. After all, the average full-time employee spends 47 hours a week at their job, and almost 40

percent spend more than 50 hours a week there.

That being said, if you are dis- or under-engaged, there are a number of proactive strategies you can pursue

that take the whole of your being – not just your “work self” – into account. This book will help you explore:

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

• Yourpersonalgoals.J.C.Penneyoncesaid,“GivemeastockclerkwithagoalandI’llgiveyouamanwhowillmakehistory.Givemeamanwithnogoals,andI’llgiveyouastockclerk.”Doyouevenhavegoals?Ifnot,whynot?Ifso,whataretheobstaclesthatarekeepingyoufromreachingthem?Aretheseobstaclesexternalorinternal?Whatcanyoudotoovercomeorcircumventthem?

AVERAGE HOURS WORKED

BY FULL-TIME U.S. WORKERS, AGED 18+

In a typical week, how many hours do you work?

Employed full-time

%60+ hours 1850 to 59 hours 2141 to 49 hours 1140 hours 42Less than 40 hours 8

Based on Gallup data from the 2013 and 2014

Work and Education polls, conducted in August each year.

13




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

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

• Theimportanceofremainingaworkinprogress.Evenifyouarecurrentlyveryfulfilledinyourwork,it’simportanttoperiodicallycheckinwithyourownlevelsofengagement.Thinkingofyourcareerasacontinuousworkinprogressmightpreventyoufrombecomingthenextfaxmachinemanufacturer.

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

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

• Communicatingyourengagementworkandlifeneedstomanagement.NooneshouldbecometheworkplaceBoyWhoCriedWolf,butifsomethinginyourpersonallifeisadverselyaffectingyourperformanceyouhaveadutytocommunicatewithyoursupervisor.Comepreparedwithaplan–yourproactivitywillbeappreciated.

• Gainingawiderdegreeofchoiceandfreedom.Marketableskills,arobustpersonalnetwork,a“MyChoice”fund,andcontinuedlearningandcompetencybuildinghelpyoutoremainaflexible“workinprogress,”andpreventyoufrombecomingtrappedduetolackofoptions.

Even if you’re unemployed, underemployed, overworked, burned out, 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

yourroadmaptofindingthemandusingthemtolocateyourbestpotential.Tostart,usetheRestStoponthe

following page to assess your engagement over the past several months. When and why were you “up?” When

andwhywereyou“down?”Werethesefactorsinfluencingyourengagementpersonal,work-related,orboth?

14




EXAMPLE I got a promotion!

My partner and I split up.

My engagement was up because:

My engagement was down because:

Rest Stop #2: Your Peaks and Valleys

No one is always up, and hopefully, no one is always down. Using the tool below, identify at least

one event that caused your engagement to increase, and one that caused it to decrease.

Why was this?

TIME

ENG

AG

EMEN

T

3 months ago 2 months ago 1 month ago Today

3 months ago 2 months ago 1 month ago Today

1 3

4 6 8 10 12 1614

5 7 9 11 13 15 17

18

19

20

21

22

23

2

Documents

Why Engage?employeeengagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/I-Engage_Exce… · WHY ENGAGE? ... Cultivate an Abundance ... should do to engage employees. 1 The Engaged Company Stock