5) So what are the right decisions?

The last couple of times around I’ve been beating my engagement-is-about-making-the-right decisions drum. I’ve talked about creating understanding of culture and purpose. But how do you bring them into people’s every day work?

Well firstly, I think it’s about communication. For the sake of transparency, I work most often alongside communication agencies, so I would say that wouldn’t I? But when I’m wearing my objective researcher hat, then I’ve become pretty convinced of Hypothesis # 6: Most organisations would benefit from better communication. In qualitative exercises communication always scores low, in open discussion it almost always crops up. Here’s a blog of engagement tips that gets one thing in particular spot on: communication is first on the list. And second. And third. And quite a few places down the list too.

Secondly, I think it’s about managers. Now, for the sake of transparency, I also work alongside leadership development specialists, so I would say that wouldn’t I? But look, there’s a reasons these organisations exist, and there’s a reason that people turn to them for their engagement issues. Again, when I’m the gimlet-eyed, detached researcher it’s often hard to get people off the topic of their manager. To the point where I believe Hypothesis # 7 Most managers aren’t very good managers. Which isn’t to say that it’s their fault. They’re nice people and they’re probably awesome at some other part of their job. That’s why they got promoted, But now they have been, they maybe don’t have time, haven’t been trained, or even fully understand what it means to be a manager. This is a great article about the contribution managers make to engagement, when they understand the role and know how to both push and pull their team.

Thirdly, these two points belong together because it’s managers through whom most of the most pertinent communication should come – but if they’re not fed it, and don’t know how to deliver it, then it’s not going to happen. Engagement becomes an uphill struggle, culture is variable, and performance suffers.

And as well as the communications about what benefits the company, managers are also the conduit for the information that benefits the employee. Managers help you access the drivers, the what-you-get-in-returns, which is what I’ll talk about next time.