INTRODUCTION
Why Engaging Leadership? Why Now?

Thomas Edison once said, “If we all did the things we were capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” Actually, if leaders were able to engage others by tapping into their capabilities, talents, and potential, people would astound their leaders. Organizations are full of untapped potential; imagine what a thoroughly engaged, passionate, excited, willing, and happy workforce could accomplish. These are the characteristics of engaged people. The most engaging leaders create meaningful, positive connections with people to enable them to reach their potential and offer their best work.

To achieve the best performance and meet the changing demands and priorities of the 21st century workforce, leaders must be willing to unlearn the lessons of traditional leadership and find ways to differentiate their organizations—not through control or over-zealous processes, but through the talents of engaged individuals. The traditional command-oriented style of leadership has become obsolete. The world is changing at an unprecedented pace. The economic world market has increased our interdependency on change and global relationships. By the time organizations create and test perfect processes and policies, document them in an employee manual, and train individuals to use them consistently, the world has changed again and those processes and policies are no longer appropriate.

The changing landscape of 21st century organizations includes quickly changing business needs, greater numbers of retiring baby-boomers (creating a need for new, talented individuals to fill those roles), more employment opportunities in a competitive market, and new working conditions that promote telecommuting and work-life satisfaction. In addition to an increasingly competitive global market, the cultural interpretation of work has shifted. In the 21st century, a job is not just a job: it is a descriptor of personal identity, values, and beliefs. People want more from their jobs and they are willing to give greater efforts in exchange for more meaningful work. People will work harder if they are rewarded with the ability to contribute and influence.

The need to find meaning and to influence leads to a sense of engagement in work. People have higher expectations about the work they do, the meaning it creates for them, their sense of connection to it, and the harmony it creates in their lives.

“You don‧t lead people by hitting them over the head—that‧s assault, not leadership.”

— DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, U.S. PRESIDENT AND GENERAL

While many leaders may tout their employees as their greatest resource, this is little more than lip service in many organizations. Many leaders are told to utilize the talents of others, but few are held accountable. Instead, the kind of personalized, individual attention that is necessary gives way to task-focused priorities. It is no surprise that this creates a cynical, disengaged workforce. When individuals become a mere part of a business landscape focused on results, it often means they are being neglected. As a result, increased numbers of individuals just float through their jobs on a day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month basis, not feeling connected to their work or committed to their leaders.

As part of the evolving landscape of leadership in the 21st century, it is important to realize that the traditional command-oriented style of leadership is not engaging today‧s workforce. While in some organizations this style brings greater efficiency and consistency, it also marginalizes and shapes the contributions that individuals are willing to make. People do not perceive this style of leadership as mutually beneficial. Instead of inciting passion, innovation, creativity, and excitement, this approach has leaders trying to mold and shape everyone to be the same, which results in a group of employees acting more like inefficient machines than passionate, involved individuals.

Unlike times in history when jobs were scarce and options lacking, workers in the 21st century are inundated with numerous opportunities to find meaningful employment that meets their personal interests, needs, and priorities. Engagement fulfills the need for personal connections, including a sense of belonging, recognition, support, growth, and trust.

Traditional, command-oriented leadership will not provide organizations their best chance at success in the 21st century. Procedures and processes alone won‧t help them cope with the ever-changing world—people will. People are the difference and the competitive advantage. It is no wonder that a leadership approach that marginalizes individuals leads them to mentally check out of jobs. It is no wonder that individuals are not performing to their potential and using all their talents—their leaders are not engaging them. The new challenge for leaders at all organizational levels is to engage others to get their best efforts at work. In traditional thinking, command-oriented leadership works best. However, in the 21st century, people do not want to be controlled. They want to be engaged.

The Value of Engaged Individuals

What is the difference between passionate and dispassionate individuals within an organization? What is the difference between active engagement and active disengagement? Leaders at all levels of an organization should value engagement, as engagement has implications for every organizational level, including individual and group levels, and for the entire organization itself.

“Permanence is the last refuge of those with shriveled imaginations.”

—WARREN BUFFETT, INVENTOR AND BUSINESSPERSON

Actively engaged individuals enjoy greater job satisfaction and enrichment. They are excited to be at work and believe in the mission and vision of the organization. They find energy during stressful times, and they demonstrate a strong work ethic no matter how busy or slow the pace. Actively engaged individuals look at challenges differently and handle change more effectively. They are willing to resolve conflict and do so in a more productive way. They consistently focus on the quality of their work, no matter what the assignment. And they are committed to their work, their supervisors, and their organization.

Leaders have a vested interest in creating actively engaged teams as well. Not only do team members enjoy the same benefits collectively as they do on an individual level, but they also understand and appreciate the importance of increased collaboration, commitment, and trust. The more actively engaged a team is, the better it performs. In many organizations, teams and work groups drive important strategic and operational initiatives and projects, and these initiatives are influenced by the individual engagement of team or group members.

On an organizational level, actively engaged individuals provide a source of competitive advantage. They save resources through higher commitments to quality, less turnover, and increased productivity. They can also engage their customers through better service and higher quality standards, potentially leading to higher revenue.

The Cost of Disengaged Individuals

To understand the implications of disengagement, consider the following research by some of the most respected research organizations in the world:

The Gallup Organization estimates that disengagement costs $350 billion per year in lost productivity In addition, its research suggests that health care costs increase when individuals are either non-engaged or actively disengaged, primarily due to stress, doctor visits, and physical problems—$350 billion!

The Corporate Leadership Council, surveying 50,000 employees from 59 countries around the world, found that highly engaged individuals perform 20 percent better than non-engaged or actively disengaged individuals and are 87 percent less likely to leave their organizations. Furthermore, the council‧s analysis of rational and emotional forms of engagement indicates that emotional engagement drives individual discretionary effort four times greater than rational engagement. Those are powerful numbers!

“In motivating people, you‧ve got to engage their minds and their hearts. It is good business to have a person feel part of the entire effort … I motivate people, I hope, by example—and perhaps by excitement, by having provocative ideas to make others feel involved.”

— RUPERT MURDOCH, GLOBAL MEDIA EXECUTIVE AND BUSINESSPERSON

A study by Michael Treacy, author of Double-Digit Growth: How Great Companies Achieve It No Matter What, and his partners at Hewitt Associates indicates that companies with a 60 to 70 percent engaged workforce showed double the shareholder return of those with only a 49 to 60 percent engaged workforce. Companies with less than 25 percent of engaged people showed a negative shareholder return. This data shows that engagement not only affects individuals and leaders, it also affects customers and shareholders.

As an engaging leader, it is imperative to understand the cost of disengagement, as the implications are tremendous. Actively disengaged individuals are more likely to leave an organization, resulting in higher levels of turnover. They use more sick time (which contributes to rising health care costs), decrease productivity, hurt team morale, and often frustrate customers. While engaged individuals focus on assignments and success, actively disengaged individuals focus on everything but the work. Their frustrations often bleed into their personal lives, too.

The data on disengagement is alarming when one considers what could be accomplished if an organization were to minimize active disengagement and transform non-engaged individuals into engaged employees. Temporarily, a leader may get by with only 25 percent member engagement driving group success; but what could be accomplished if more team members were engaged? Leaders cannot afford to depend on only those individuals who are currently engaged to produce the results necessary for business success. For maximum success, leaders must increase the number of engaged individuals working with them.

PRINCIPLE

In the 21st century‧s global market, leaders cannot depend on only currently engaged individuals to produce successful results. It is necessary to increase engagement from others, too.

Whether recognizing the benefits of engagement from the perspective of individual potential or from a bottom-line perspective, leaders at all levels have a strong business case to care about—and work on—how they intentionally engage others, how they tap into the potential of others.

The groups with the most potential to become (or stay) engaged are the actively engaged and the non-engaged groups. This book presents methods for maintaining active engagement and inspiring non-engaged individuals to become engaged. It focuses less on what is necessary to transform actively disengaged individuals, because doing so typically drains a significant amount of energy with limited potential returns. Even managing to get actively disengaged individuals into the non-engaged category requires leaders to exert a tremendous amount of energy, and often at the cost of neglecting others.

What Can Engaging Leadership Accomplish?

What can engaging leadership accomplish when it positively shifts the percentage of non-engaged individuals, even if only a little? What if leaders could decrease the percentage of non-engaged individuals from 50 percent to 25 percent? By decreasing the number of non-engaged people by 25 percent and helping them join the existing 25 percent of engaged people, you could have over 50 percent of those working with you engaged. That would translate into a workforce where over half the people are engaged—over half the people working with the leader would be running on all cylinders, finding meaning and value in their work, and adding value to the organization. What could a leader—what could you—accomplish with that type of effort and commitment from people?

Engagement is an individual choice people make, but engaging leaders are in the best position to influence the engagement levels of others. Engaging leaders resolve to not let others be disengaged or even non-engaged. Traditional thinking would suggest that leaders tell people to become engaged. But that traditional command-and-control approach actually fosters disengagement. Instead, engaging leaders find ways to create personal connections with others, connecting individuals to their work, to their organization, and to themselves as leaders by establishing high-quality relationships. Engaging leaders connect individuals in meaningful ways, tapping into their wants and needs, fostering a desire to take action.

PRINCIPLE

Engaging leaders resolve to not let individuals disengage, but instead, proactively work to engage others.