The Employee Engagement Roller Coaster

The climate that we work in today is getting increasingly more competitive and our organizations are more complex and ambiguous than ever before in history. Each day the markets in which we compete grow and change. In this increasingly competitive culture, it is imperative that we link proven strategies to robust execution so our teams will be more productive. The key to this link between strategy and execution is what we are calling “tactical capacity.” Tactical capacity is a set of specific leader behavior skills together with strong cognitive skills that connect on an emotional level with your team members to drive performance.

Organizational results show that employee engagement is a key contributor to improved operations, financial growth, and enhanced management-workforce relationships. Talk to leaders in any industry and they will tell you that trying to keep employees engaged is like a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. The key to surviving this roller coaster ride is first, understanding that the ride is just getting started, and second, that effective leadership skills that influence behavior and positive emotion is what’s needed to drive the performance in today’s work environment.

Additionally, organizations that have a high level of employee engagement and positive emotion and energy are going to have workers that are more productive; they work harder; they’re happier and healthier; they stay longer; they come to work every day. Actual employee engagement as a whole is a program of getting your entire workforce enthusiastically energized about, and involved in, their work, the organization, and higher levels of performance.

While employee satisfaction is still a goal for many organizations, it is no longer sufficient to achieve and sustain high levels of performance in today’s economically strained environment. Just as technology has increased the borders of our markets, it has also increased competition for the best and brightest employees. Gone are the days when a paycheck, the employee of the month award, and the gold watch at retirement were sufficient motivators for people to perform at their best or to remain loyal and dedicated to the organization Employees today seek to work for a company and leaders with whom they feel proud to be associated and who treat them like active contributors. They want to work for leaders who appreciate the value they add and rely on their passions and talents to every extent possible.

In order to get the necessary energy created and diffusing throughout your organization, leaders need the skill of Positive Presence – a mental thought model that links human energy to behaviour competency. Positive Presence is a new and deliberate way of thinking and behaving that makes the connection between human energy and behaviour and is easily practiced and developed right on the job. For many, it is just a lot of common sense, but for others it is a slow and gentle process that requires the help of both team mates and leaders. The skill is grounded in the research coming from the Neurosciences – necessary to understand why today’s work environment affects so many of us the way it does.