The Heart of Engagement is dedicated to my exploration of the ongoing challenge both employers and employees face in creating and sustaining working conditions that invite and recognize full engagement.
In my view organizational engagement is sustained in a condition of shared responsibility, with employer and employee equally responsible. This is not necessarily the conventional view on this subject and you can expect to find me sharing some unconventional ideas. As far as I am concerned, when it comes to engagement in the workplace there are no spectators and no innocent victims, if you are there you share the responsibility.
Over 24 years of practice I have made it my business to seek out the critical elements that contribute to environments that promote engagement. Not every environment or type of work can be made inviting to everyone yet I find that environments where it is possible to measure a high degree of engagement some common factors will be found. These common factors have become for me a set of beliefs expressed broadly as follows: I fully believe in the following set of propositions:
It is possible to design working environments where there…
- is respect for each and every individual contributor
- regard and reward for original thought
- the expressed recognition that nearly every employee’s first objective is to make a contribution in their place of work everyday they are there.
Most importantly for you if you are reading here…
- I believe that the relationship between any employee and their immediate manager lies at or near the “heart” of engagement.
The highest expression of this relationship I call Being Coachable and Coaching. This relationship is the basis for performance in any organizational setting and this is what you’ll read about in my frequent postings to this site. I’ll cover all sides of the relationship with a bias toward providing managers the insight and awareness they need to create, develop, and sustain an engaged work group that can be expected to perform at consistently high levels over extended periods of time, regardless of external or internal circumstances that may hold the potential to be derailing.
If you are an employer, a manager or an employee, or all three, I invite your participation here. I welcome opportunities for exchange by email and telephone and I am open to requests to cover certain topics, at least cover them from where I see the world.
At The Heart of Engagement you will find thoughts, analysis, commentary and references to any of the following areas designed to inform anyone interested in exploring the manager/employee relationship and how it provides the key to a highly engaged workforce.
- Books and articles that establish or add to the existing body of knowledge on employee engagement and talent management development
- Demographic, economic, technological and sociological TRENDS worth watching
- Anecdotal references that validate or question conventional wisdom
- Blog sites that expand this conversation and offer parallel, corresponding and even perspectives contrary to my own.
