The employee and the manager must take ownership of their engagement.
Seventy percent of the variance in employee engagement is tied directly to the manager (source: Gallup). But what about the other percent?
Employee engagement is crucial to the success of any organization, and it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Engaged employees are more productive, more likely to stay with their organization, and more likely to recommend their company to others.
As a young man, I was once so miserable at work that I quit my job by just walking out the door. Never said a word and never went back. Later in life, I had jobs I loved. Time flew by each day, my manager was great, and I actually looked forward to going to work every Monday.
Later, I started my own business and hired dozens and hundreds of workers as a boss. I can remember the sting and confusion I felt when employees would quit for another opportunity elsewhere. I took employee departures so seriously that I made creating a great culture my number-one focus. Eventually, we won Best Place to Work awards—made all the more special because it was based on anonymous surveys of workers.
I learned from that process—going from having a bad boss to creating the Best Place to Work—that it takes both the manager and the individual employee to create a thriving culture that fosters full engagement.
Or, as I like to say, when it comes to employee engagement, it takes two to tango!
Yet, we often look at only half of the equation. “What can the company do…? What must managers do to increase employee engagement?”
But the other half of the equation—the other question—is “What can each individual do to become fully engaged and create a great workplace?”
This gets to the fact that engagement comes from both external and internal motivation. Research shows that some personality types are more likely to be engaged, regardless of the manager or organization (specifically, people high on Extroversion and low on Neuroticism using the Five-Factor Model of personality).
During one of my keynote presentations, a person in the audience literally shouted out, “Why is it always my fault? Why is the same person who complains about lack of communication also the one who never asks questions in meetings? They never use the open door policy?”
Now it’s hard to tell if the organization in question lacked psychological safety, but it’s a valid point that we need to teach everyone how to be engaged at work.
In addition to supporting the manager’s critical and most important role, we should assume that individuals must take ownership of their own engagement. This means taking the initiative to participate in programs designed to develop their skills, seeking out feedback, and promoting their organization's goals and initiatives.
The organization should do far more than just ask individual contributors to complete an annual survey. I radically suggest that all organizations:
- Begin in the new hire orientation process–teach engagement and set the expectation that everybody is a leader–everybody has a role to play.
- Require training on how to trigger and support the primary domains of engagement (e.g., future vision, psychological safety, feedback, communication, growth, and recognition).
- Training alone suffers from the “knowing-doing” gap; supplement training with a behavioral nudge engine that offers nudges and micro-learning tied to recent survey scores.
- Make employee engagement part of stay-interviews and performance reviews (i.e., how are they increasing the engagement of their team members?).
While managers significantly impact employee engagement, it is important to remember that engagement is a two-way street. The employee and the manager must take ownership of their engagement and work together to create a positive and engaging work environment.
Kevin Kruse is the Founder + CEO of LEADx, a leadership development system that scales and sustains habits through micro-coaching and behavioral nudges. Kevin is also a New York Times bestselling author of Great Leaders Have No Rules, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, and Employee Engagement 2.0.
