Employee engagement begins one worker at a time

by Dan Oswald

If you read the Harvard Business Review, you might have noticed a recent article proclaiming “The New Employer-Employee Compact.” The article, like all the other articles and books written on the subject, reminds us that the days of lifelong employment with a single company are over. (Thanks for that news flash!) Then the authors, who include the cofounder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, put forward the idea of “tours of duty” as the solution. You can read more about their ideas in the June 2013 issue.

For some reason, the fact that we keep talking about “today’s employees” and how they must be treated for them to be “engaged” frustrates me. There’s certainly no shortage of advice. Type “employee engagement” into Google, and over 40 million search results come up in .24 seconds. Search Amazon for books on the same topic, and you get no fewer than 4,436 titles. Like I said, there’s no shortage of advice.

Larry Winget tells us It’s Called Work for a Reason. Daniel Pink, in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, proclaims there are only three things that truly motivate us at work or in life. Another book tells us there are no fewer than 42 rules to engaging employees. Everybody has a theory. If you want to learn more about the various theories, you could read a book a week from Amazon’s list of titles and be reading for the next 84 years!

I’m not saying there isn’t some really good stuff in these articles and books. I’m not saying company leaders don’t need to work to understand employees and what motivates them. And I’m certainly not saying that employee engagement doesn’t matter. What I’m saying is that people are people and they change, individually and collectively, all the time.

As a manager, I think you must get to know the people. When I coached high-school football, I learned quickly that no two players were the same. Each had specific skills, different experiences, and varying abilities. But more than anything else, each had his own personality and therefore had to be coached as an individual. An action that might require a kick in the rear for one (not literally) could require a word of encouragement and a pat on the back for another.

I can remember becoming frustrated with colleagues who treated every player exactly the same—usually by taking an approach much like you’d expect from a drill sergeant. When I would question them about that, the stock answer was that they treated everyone the same and didn’t play favorites. What they failed to get from the players who didn’t respond positively to tongue-lashings we’ll never know. I’m more of a fan of treating everyone fairly but not necessarily treating them the same—equal but as individuals.

I remember one year we had a truly gifted athlete who played wide receiver. He was easily the most talented athlete on the team. He was big, strong, and fast. His biggest weakness was a lack of mental toughness. If he dropped a pass, he couldn’t overcome it immediately. Some coaches would jump on him and berate him for his mistake.

We learned that the best thing to do was bring him to the sideline and reassure him. We knew we would need him again, and we told him so. We had to build him back up or else he would be lost for the rest of the game—something we couldn’t afford as a team. Another player may have needed to be challenged about his lack of concentration, but not this one. We want to get the most out of everyone, but that requires treating them as individuals. And to treat them as individuals, you must know them.

One book title jumped out at me when I did my Amazon search—Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT. I haven’t read the book and know nothing of its author, but the concept makes sense to me. If you respect people enough to get to know them—to understand their wants, needs, and desires—and if you can help them find a way to contribute to the organization’s success that satisfies them, then you’ll have a successful relationship.

I don’t want to discourage you from thinking about employee engagement or reading up on the subject. I understand that truly engaged employees are critical to success. I just don’t believe there is a silver bullet that will solve this issue. There is no single idea or theory that will allow you to have a company filled with engaged people. You must build employee engagement one person at a time. And you do it by understanding who each person is and what drives him or her as an individual. It’s that simple and that difficult!