Page 153 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

140B RE-ENGAGE

sponsibility for creating work cultures and conditions where engage-
ment can thrive (see Chapter 10 on self-engagement).
For many leaders and managers, this will require a mindset change
that they are not willing to make. The minority of leaders and managers
who are focused on creating better places to work have long since
adopted the right mindset and the right practices for aligning and
engaging their workforces.

: FINAL THOUGHTS

A colleague of ours shared the following conversation she had with
a client on the topic of employee engagement. The client, apparently
frustrated by her admonitions about improving the culture at the
company he owned, said, “Ann, it’s not my job to make my employees
happy!”
Ann’s response? “Well Fred, it’s not your job to make them miser-
able, either!”
There are still managers in this world who think they must ca-
jole, intimidate, and threaten people in order to be productive. They
worry that if they show any sense of concern or care for those whom
they supervise, they’ll be taken advantage of. They seem to be say-
ing, “If you’re not a pain in the ass, they’ll think you’re weak, right?”
They ignore the advice we’ve given about what engages employees,
yet continue to be stunned with less-than-expected productivity and a
revolving door of employees.
Having said that, we also get the sense that there are many leaders
who have an equally mistaken point of view when it comes to creating
a great workplace, thinking that engagement is all about making em-
ployees happy. To them, employee engagement is about making things
all sweet for employees so they, in turn, will love them right back.
The overly schmaltzy image of everyone around the campfire singing
“Kumbaya” comes to mind—let’s just all be happy, right?
Wrong.