Engagement at Work
What would make the difference to your team?
In Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Hall reflects on the higher nature of Man, characterized by clarity, Spirit, grace and compassion, whereas the lower nature of man is characterized by fear, superstition and ignorance.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, I think we all aspire to pull ourselves out of the lower levels into the higher levels.
As a leader or a manager, we are accountable for the productivity of our people. We have been exposed to volumes of materials on being better leaders, on building strong teams, and on being good managers, with pages of “how to” accomplish that.
What if we just thought of being a good leader, an effective manager, or a solid team player as working to raise our co-workers from the lower levels of humanity to higher levels? What impact that would that have performance and productivity?
In this context, I am associating engagement with elevating ourselves up the human ladder, which takes engaging the heart.
So.... where do you see yourself in this journey?
A Gallup Poll says three decades of studies have consistently measured workplace populations as 33% being engaged, 51% not engaged, and16% actively not engaged (actively dragging the organization down.)
When the studies come to managers, the stats for personnel rise to 35-37% engaged. I think it’s worth noting that statistically, it’s primarily women managers that cause the improvement.
There is one more stat that I think is even more significant. 60% of the people working for engaged managers are engaged.
The participants in the study were interviewed on what keeps them engaged at work.
Here are the most common responses:
Feeling like my work is appreciated
Feeling like my ideas are heard or listened to
The opportunity for learning and growth
Half of Millennials, who will soon be 50% of the workforce, and 75% by 2030, expect to leave their job in 2 years, at a mega billion-dollar cost to industry.
Engaging your people raises productivity (17%), profits (21%) and significantly reduces turnover.
Google, after spending millions of dollars and several years studying 180 teams companywide ultimately identified two common denominators to successful teams over poorly performing teams:
People on the team were able to speak about the same amount of time (their input was asked for, and they were listened to).
The team members demonstrated a sensitivity to how their other team members felt. (we would consider this a mind/heart skill)
Not unlike Gallup’s findings!
Such Studies and Polls lead us to a common conclusion, which is what we call the economics of human decency
John Mackey of Whole Foods, Inc and his associates are elevating the performance of every organization that is listening, by actively promoting Conscious Capitalism. Mackey built Whole Foods on those principles and is now sharing them, validating the economics of decency.
So where are you at being engaged?
Where are you at engaging your people? Are these important to you? Engagement and connection swim along the same stream. Engagement takes focus on yourself and on people. Connection is fundamentally a matter of the heart.
Keep up the good work!
