Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

We've heard or seen the numbers. Employees are not engaged with their work.  

In fact, some have gone so far to say that as few as 13 percent of employees are truly engaged while at work. 

So, it must be a worker problem. Without the control and independence that comes with being a manager, one is more likely to encounter disengagement. 

But here's the thing, other studies point out that only 35 percent of managers are engaged in their work. 

So, it turns out that engagement isn't a manager or employee problem - it is a workplace problem.  The article from Gallup noted an unfortunate "cascading" effect.

Day in and day out, managers are tasked with engaging employees, but 51% of managers have essentially "checked out," meaning they care little, if at all, about their job and company. And that attitude has dire consequences. A manager's engagement -- or lack thereof -- affects his or her employees' engagement, creating what Gallup calls the "cascade effect." Essentially, employees' engagement is directly influenced by their managers' engagement -- whose engagement is directly influenced by their managers' engagement.

Gallup has studied engagement data from 190 diverse industries and has found that managers who are directly supervised by highly engaged leadership teams are 39% more likely to be engaged than managers who are supervised by actively disengaged leadership teams. And the link between engaged managers and engaged employees is even more powerful. Employees who are supervised by highly engaged managers are 59% more likely to be engaged than those supervised by actively disengaged managers.

So, it seems that organizations  must first ensure that their managers are engaged. Otherwise, the trouble seems to roll downhill.

The article gives three ideas to engage managers.

• Communicate where the organization is going.
• Develop them.
• Emphasize their strengths.

I urge you to read the article yourself.  There's a ton of good info there.  And a Hat Tip to the Leadership Freak for highlighting the topic.

So, the questions of the day...

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how engaged are your employees?
• The same, but for your managers? 
• And finally, how engaged are you? I should ask the same of myself. For if the lack of engagement flows down, the best way to spur engagement is to start with yourself.