Your First Leadership Job: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others

Your First Leadership Job

Mastery and Leadership Skills12Engagement and RetentionCreating the Environment to Energize People

Pre:Think

Think about a time when you considered leaving your job. What was missing for you? Did you think things would be different? Did you have needs that weren't being addressed? Think back to the moment when you just knew: This isn't working for me. I have to find something else.

Perhaps you've heard senior leaders use the term engagement or employee engagement as a way to describe how people are feeling about their jobs.

The quest for engaged employees is a mantra at many organizations these days, possibly yours. It evokes questions such as these: Are people showing up energized and ready to work? Feeling hopeful about the future? Bringing their best effort to the table? And there's another term permeating today's organizations: Retention. Are employees happy enough to stick around? Or are you always looking for new people?

Employee engagement and retention are more than just buzzwords—they're real vehicles for measuring the health and potential of any company. There are hundreds of studies showing that groups with highly engaged teams are more profitable, more productive (based on their stated business goals), have more satisfied customers, and suffer fewer accidents.¹ And as you learned in Chapter 10 (“Hiring and Selecting the Best”), losing, ...