Companies spend enormous energy trying to improve engagement. I think we often have the sequence backward.
Companies spend enormous energy trying to improve engagement.
I think we often have the sequence backward.
Engagement is not what we fix.
Engagement is what happens when we fix what is broken.
At a Waffle House outside Atlanta, I met a server named Libby who had been there for thirteen years. When I asked what she loved about the work, her answer was the same answer I have heard from people across industries and countries: the people.
She felt heard. Her ideas were tried. On a bad day, others lifted her up. On a good day, she could do the same for them.
Why This Matters for Leaders
Engagement followed the experience.
This is why another survey or initiative can disappoint. The organization measures the symptom, launches a program, and leaves the daily friction untouched.
If you want more engagement, look underneath it.
Do people feel seen?
Do they feel heard?
Do they trust the people around them?
A Practical Way to Apply the Idea
Can they raise a problem without paying a social price?
When they offer an idea, does anything happen?
Engagement is downstream.
Fix the underlying experience and it often arrives without being invited.
Chase engagement directly and you may spend a lot of money measuring the smoke.
Find the fire.
A SIMPLE LEADERSHIP PRACTICE
Use the question or framework in the next real decision, team conversation, or planning session. The objective is not to admire the idea. It is to create information about the work while the cost of learning is still small.
COMMON MISTAKES
- Turning the idea into a slogan without changing a behaviour, meeting, decision rule, or feedback loop.
- Scaling a solution before the team has learned whether it addresses the root friction.
- Confusing adaptability with a lack of standards. Values, safety, ethics, and other true anchors still require clarity.
- Waiting for complete certainty when the next responsible action is reversible and can create better information.
What drives employee engagement?
Eric’s view is that engagement is downstream of the daily employee experience: clarity, trust, feeling seen and heard, useful feedback loops, and the ability to influence work.
Are engagement surveys useful?
They can be useful measurement tools, but measurement does not replace follow-through on the conditions creating disengagement.
How can a manager improve engagement?
Start by identifying one recurring source of friction and improving the quality of regular check-ins.
RELATED RESOURCES
- Plans Are Hypotheses, Not Promises: A Better Approach to Strategic Planning
- Why Trust Matters More During Change and Uncertainty
- How to Lead Through Uncertainty: A Practical Guide for Leaders