Understanding Engagement
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” — Jack Welch
Engagement is a universal construct that transcends industries and areas. For example, there is employee engagement in the business world, learner engagement in training environments, and athletic engagement in sports. What engagement comes down to is, “do individuals care about what they are doing? Are they passionate about or committed to their work?”
Our clients assess various physical, technical, and behavioral aspects on an individual. There are many facets under the engagement umbrella on which we help our clients collect data (e.g., work ethic, commitment, creativity) — these are primarily captured in behavioral data. We create measures for data collection and produce reports that summarize that data collected on an individual. When we are looking at behavior across time, we are looking for one thing: improvement. Has this individual improved his or her skills? Have we seen an improvement in this individual’s work ethic to succeed? If not, it could be an engagement problem.
I find it interesting that oftentimes this ideal state of improvement is considered to be the responsibility of that individual and that individual alone. In my view, that is incorrect. Giving someone feedback on where he or she needs to improve isn’t even enough. The ecosystem of performance is much greater than that. These individuals are a part of something greater than themselves. They are a part of organizations, classes, teams — all of which have leaders.
One of the primary drivers of engagement is one’s engagement with their leaders. This could also be an instructor or coach depending on the context. In order to be actively engaged, individuals need to feel they bring value, will be treated fairly and see others treated fairly, receive feedback (not only on weaknesses but strengths as well), and have a good relationship based on mutual respect and trust. I couldn’t expect someone to be engaged in a culture that does not exhibit trust, fairness, value, and respect.
You have the ability to influence the growth of your people to become top talent. Create conditions which will allow your talent to offer more capability and potential. Leaders, if you want your people to improve, it starts with the culture you create and how you operate.
