Page 97 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

68 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

Circle of RESPECT

Based on engagement research, the Circle of RESPECT distin-
guishes five areas in which employees experience feelings of
respect and disrespect.

• Organization—its mission, vision, values, goals, policies,
and actions. Employees are proud to say, “I work for this
organization.”
• Leadership—especially as it concerns their direct
supervisor, believing that he or she is competent and
ethical, makes good decisions, and treats people fairly.
• Team members—believing that they are competent,
cooperative, honest, supportive, and willing to pull their
own weight.
• Work—finding it challenging, rewarding, interesting, and
as having value to both internal and external customers.
• Individual—feeling respected by the organization,
supervisor, and fellow team members.

Next to each area of the Circle of RESPECT (Figure 4.1) you
will find a line. On that line, write down the time in your life
when you experienced the greatest level of respect in each
area. For example, I had tremendous respect for my colleagues
at Davidson College, so on the line for Team Members I would
write down: “Davidson, 1997–2000.”
If it turns out that you have the same answer on all five
lines, congratulations—not many people do, and I hope you are
in that position right now. For those so fortunate, I bet you are
excited to go to work, energized while there, and feel like what
you do makes a difference. I’ll bet you work hard but it doesn’t
much seem like work. I’ll bet you’re proud to tell people where
you work and what you do. I’ll also bet that you would describe