When you devote yourself to excellence in everything you do, you begin to feel a greater sense of positive pride about the way you are conducting your days. This in turn increases self-respect and confidence, which, in turn, release greater energy and passion. You begin to feel good about yourself. People who feel good about themselves do great work and create remarkable things. And this, in turn, just makes them raise their standards of excellence even higher. It’s an upward spiral that takes people to ever-increasing places of joy, meaning, and internal peace.
—Robin Sharma
What is employee engagement? What is its relevancy for managers and businesses? How has the definition of the word engagement changed with the new generation of employees? Will you, as a manager, be able to achieve your goal of engaging your employees? Even if you do, to what extent will they be engaged? What does engagement mean to these employees?
The book that you are about to read is not really a book in a classic sense of that word. It is much more than a mere book. It is an invaluable instrument for you to use in the process of assessing and developing the real, actual level of engagement of your workforce.
Cutting Through the Noise: The Right Employment Engagement Strategies for YOU was conceived, designed, developed, and written with one major purpose and objective: to provide managers with a full and comprehensive understanding of the true meaning of the term employee engagement, and its importance for your business.
The book is not necessarily designed to be read from cover-to-cover. It is a practical, easy-to-understand working manual, in which you will find multiple ideas and reflections that will lead you to challenge and maybe even deconstruct your preconceptions about the meaning of the term engagement, as we know it. As you read, you will feel, correctly, that your assumptions are carefully but aggressively questioned and that you may need to break away from the paradigms by which you have operated your business and managed your people in the past.
This process of deconstructing paradigms starts immediately, in chapter 1, where the authors dare you to answer a “fact or myth” questionnaire concerning multiple statements. The answer will open your eyes, as well as your company’s, into a self-discovery voyage that will undoubtedly lead you to a new manner in which you conduct your business.
The book takes you on a journey, starting with the authors defining organizational culture as “the attitudes, beliefs, values, expectations, knowledge, language, opportunities, structure, and materials of a particular workplace that define how business is conducted on a daily basis.” Furthermore, for each one of these characteristics, you will find hypothetical situations for you to evaluate and consider possible courses of action.
In the end, the journey will take you to the ultimate goal of turning the managers into role models for employee engagement. To achieve this goal, you and your company need to understand and accept change. Change is a process. Since awareness certainly precedes change, you will learn that in order to be able to change something, you need to really pay attention to it, and overcome the fear that accompanies any change.
During that voyage, multiple tables, checklists, and Listen up! notes will maintain you in the correct path toward your goal. The authors truly deliver an understanding that the pillars of employee engagement are trust and respect, that listening is “hearing what they are not saying,” and the fact that, “one size does not fit all.” The book achieves its purpose and, if you as a reader and manager are really “engaged” in the learning process, you will elevate the level of success of your company, as well as yourself.
A study made by ISR Global Research in 2006 demonstrates that employee engagement directly affects your company’s bottom line. Simply put, companies with high levels of employee engagement will, most likely, be financially superior to those with low levels of employee engagement.
In sum, it is crystal clear that ignoring the importance of achieving high levels of employee engagement is not a choice in today’s economy. This book will guide you through the correct path in your journey in search for the highest level of employee engagement in your company.
Yldefonso López-Morales, Esq.