Employee Engagement For Dummies

Chapter 6

Winning Their Hearts and Minds: Driving Engagement with a Sense of Purpose

In This Chapter

Connecting your employees’ behavior to your mission statement

Engaging employees’ heads and hearts

As I mention in Chapter 4, money is not always a primary engagement driver — although the perception of unfairness or an organizational caste system (in which there are clear “haves” and “have nots”) is certain to lead to disengagement. Purpose, however, is an engagement driver. Indeed, organizations that build their cultures around purpose generally have higher levels of engagement than those that don't.

These companies are in on a powerful secret: Companies that know their own purpose, values, vision, and strategic plan (what I call their “line of sight”), and that believe in corporate social responsibility, are better positioned to win over the hearts and minds of their employees. And not surprisingly, employees who are duly won over are significantly more likely to be engaged.

Sightseeing: Building Your Line of Sight

One morning, while staying at a hotel in Portland, Oregon, that was part of a national chain, I stepped into the hotel elevator on my way to a meeting. In the elevator were two hotel employees actively engaged in conversation. By their feet was a piece of crumpled-up ...