Engagement

Sustaining Workforce Engagement:  How to Ensure Your Employees Are Healthy, Happy and Productive by Lonnie Wilson, Routledge/Productivity Press, 2019 

    I'm tired, every day, and things aren't getting better.  The team has just about stalled out and that clownface guy over in                     engineering isn't making it any easier.  And yesterday at the big All Hands meeting they announced two new projects that will     require our "absolute competitive focus because the market, and the stockholders and management needs it all to happen."  But     what's in it for me over here in the cubicle?  I can hear the robots coming, my kids' tuition is due, and really, nobody cares.  If         one more manager asks me again if I feel "engaged" I'm going to light a fire in the lobby.  Who cares.

Well, that about says it.  But if companies want employees to feel motivated beyond the paycheck, management, says author Wilson, must take the lead and be willing to embrace change.  "The stark reality is that the changes which need to occur are in the thoughts, beliefs and actions of the management team.  Are you or are you not willing to change?  It is no more complicated than that."

Disengagement creeps in over time, as does change for the better.  Supporting his recommendations for change, Wilson illustrates with practical examples to help teams unlearn wrong concepts and open up to new ones.  Interestingly, Wilson helps the reader see that there are potential leaders out there at all levels, not just middle or senior management, and he shares how to spot them. 

Organization and culture change that Wilson advocates requires human-sensitive leaders with these characteristics:

1.  Managers who are also strong supervisors, good at delegation who are also strong situational leaders

2.  Managers who model the behaviors they wish to see in others

3.  Managers who practice and foster a teaching, learning, experimenting culture

4.  Managers who support a system of mentoring

5.  Managers who practice continuous improvement

6.  Managers who integrate the new changes into the existing system.

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, pemoody@aol.com, patriciaemoody@gmail.com, tricia@patriciaemoody.com,