Employee Engagement is a Leadership Issue
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

"They're simply going through the motions."

If yours is a typical organization, half of your workers are doing just enough to get by. Another 25 percent are totally turned off. This means that only one quarter of them are usefully engaged in building your organization and helping to meet your goals.

That's the disturbing description of most of our organizations' employees emerging from recent studies that have profiled U.S. companies. The employees are generally viewed as not enthused by their jobs, not willing to go the extra mile, and not inspired to deliver great customer service or to create great products.

Many experts and corporate leaders who study employee engagement feel this issue is related to entrenched corporate culture, but I disagree. I think engagement is an issue that's directly related to leadership.

The reason is that in all organizations, even those with "unenlightened" cultures, there are pockets of true engagement because of the magic presence of one manager, one team leader, one department head who truly understands how to inspire and motivate people.

For this discussion, we can forget about a manager's passion for issuing orders or his need to be in control. The job of touching people emotionally and motivating them to achieve great things requires an entirely different set of skills.

I think a lot of people want to simplify this work. They want to assume employee engagement is all about monetary rewards, a formal recognition program, a once-a-month pat on the back, or a little feedback now and then. But careful analysis shows that worker motivation really is about the kind of support and encouragement that happens only when the boss understands and embraces employees at the human level.

To become effective motivators, leaders must be acutely sensitive to the hopes and aspirations of their charges. When the renowned Broadway director and choreographer Bob Fosse died, for example, reporters commented on the immense loyalty his performers always showed. One dancer summed it up for everyone when she said: "We always knew that whatever Bob asked us to do - even if it was difficult or felt awkward - it was to make us look good."

A manager at a utilities company had a similar experience with a former leader: "We knew he wanted us to succeed. He was always acknowledging our good work and at the same time, always pushing us to improve. He had an almost magical ability to urge us to excel in ways that never trivialized our current achievements."

Motivational leaders almost universally inspire exceptional levels of commitment and performance. Working with one of them can be a highlight in anyone's career. To find out what kind of leadership inspired them to excellence, I asked some current executives about the best leader they had ever served. Here a few replies (and insights into the anatomy of employee engagement) from interviews in my latest book:

o Engagement begins with trust
When I was at Wrangler Brand Apparel, I worked for Robert M. O'Dear. I always felt that he absolutely trusted me. When he picked assignments for me, he also took responsibility for having chosen me. With the assurance of both his trust and his commitment, I felt that whether I won or lost, he was with me. So I gave that job everything I had.
Robert Burnside, Chief Learning Officer, Ketchum

o Engagement is nurtured when leaders are genuinely interested in employees as individuals
I was at a claim office of about 125 employees, walking through the office with the claim manager. This particular manager had received fantastic feedback on our Quality Leadership Measurement System (QLMS) survey, so I was curious to watch her with her people to figure out what generated not only the good financial results, but also this great feedback. And as we walked through the room, conversing about the normal work conditions, she would often stop and refer to specific individuals: "Steve over there has been in our area for 15 years. Steve also coaches Little League. He's got a winning record this year, Joan." We'd then move on to someone else, and as we left that person's area, quietly the claim manager would say, "Sally had some problems with her daughter this year. She's a teenager, you know. We've had many sessions behind closed doors where she's trying to sort through these problems."

It became apparent to me that this woman knew all of her people. And I don't mean just knew their jobs. She knew each individual -- their concerns, what got them excited. She knew when they were upbeat because things were going well, and she knew when they were struggling and needed her time and attention. When I asked, "How on earth can you do this for 125 people?" she replied, "That's my job."
Joan M. Crockett, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Allstate Insurance Company

o Engagement is built by involvement and inclusion
Barney Clarke, the CEO of Columbia Gas Systems, was brilliant - a genius who thought way outside the box. Although I suspect he had the answers all the time, he spent hours talking with us, involving us and making us feel as if we were an integral part of a huge change - as if we were making history. And he got so much out of all of us. We'd work 'round the clock. Working with Barney was exciting, exhausting, incredibly intense and absolutely thrilling.
Robert L. Dilenschneider, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Dilenschneider Group

o Engagement thrives on challenging work
The best leader I ever worked for, Lee Cox of Pacific Telesis, combined the ability to understand organizational dynamics with an exceptional ability to deal with people. At meetings he would pose challenging questions that left us curious, energized, and motivated. We couldn't do enough for him. Sometimes I wondered if we were all hypnotized. I've never seen people work so hard for someone and still want to do more.
Sue Swenson, President and Chief Operating Officer, Leap Wireless

What about your organization? Your department? Your team? Does your leadership create shared enthusiasm and strong employee engagement?

If so, I'm tempted to say you're lucky. But you're not really lucky, you're savvy. You know, as the executives mentioned above know, that the enthusiastic involvement of the people who work for you derives from the personal support and care that you provide.

If your part of the organization is handicapped by employees who simply are going through the motions, however, you have a leadership job on your hands. You know now that hackneyed motivational techniques will not work for you. Your people are not going to suddenly begin to outdo themselves because of a bonus or a plaque.

But you will be rewarded over time with the employee engagement you seek if you can provide your own sincere and thoughtful involvement in the personal concerns and wants of the people you lead.

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is the author of "THIS ISN'T THE COMPANY I JOINED" -- How to Lead in a Business Turned Upside Down (KCS Publishing, 2004). Carol coaches executives, facilitates management retreats, helps change teams develop strategies, and delivers keynote speeches and seminars to association and business audiences around the world. She can be reached by phone: 510-526-1727, email: CGoman@CKG.com, or through her website: www.CKG.com.