Throw away your Engagement Survey! Most work done on Engagement today resembles giving a vehicle a new paint-job in order to make it go fast. Instead of providing window dressing to boost engagement look at the true motor for Engagement. Positive Psychology has given us the Flow Model which builds on Management Science and new research to give us a true foundation for creating Engagement in our enterprises and in our lives.

1. 5 Musts for Engaged Employees
and an Engaged Life
By Greg Kontusz
Some years ago I was invited to the
mythic Silverstone F1 racetrack by one of
the sponsors of a top F1 stable to enjoy
the ceremonies surrounding the
qualifications for the upcoming race. One
of the highlights of the event was listening
to the then current F1 Champion explain
the balancing act of technology and design
required to make a F1 bolide perform,
while sipping champagne and eating
croissants in the sponsor’s tents next to one of the track’s most challenging
curves. It is mind-blowing to hear all the things that go into winning F1 races.
The minutest details are closely examined starting obviously with the motor and
ending with the paint and the sponsors’ decals which have to be ultra-thin in order
to avoid aerodynamic drag on the car. If we apply this theme to the practice of
Employee Engagement it is amazing how often we ignore the motor while focusing
on the very visible but significantly less important detail of paint and decoration.
So when considering improving engagement in our own lives as well as that of our
employees what are the real drivers that will make that happen and what is mostly
decoration.
Positive Psychology lends us
a model that best illustrates
the foundation for
engagement. Flow is the
state of being absorbed in an
activity to the point where we
start to ignore our
surroundings and are totally
engaged in the activity at
hand. Flow is achieved when
our abilities are at the same
level of the challenges that
face us. Abilities include

2. cognitive capability, skills and other factors that allow us to cope while challenges
can represent the complexity as well as the appropriateness of the demands
placed on us. If we are over-challenged we move towards burnout which
represents Psychosocial Risk, while under-challenging situations disengage us. No
one can be in Flow all of the time but the closer we get the more we are engaged
and the more we experience a feeling of well-being.
So what are the real drivers that act as the motor for engagement and the
foundation for individual and organisational well-being?
1. Matching Ability with the Challenges
Parents tell their children that they can grow up to be anything they want to
be. While that is inspiring and may even cause an individual to rise way above
what they appear to be capable of, it can also be the cause of frustration and
disengagement. While the difference in effort between becoming a doctor or
an engineer may not be apparent, if someone sets out to run the 100 meter
sprint in less than 10 seconds they are likely to quickly realise that they lack
the ability to accomplish that goal.
Every human being has a unique set of abilities, whether they are physical,
creative or intellectual varies between individuals. In business one of the key
requirements is the cognitive ability to deal with the complexity of the decisions
an individual is required to make. To most this sounds logical and so it leaves
us wondering why we don’t manage to effectively create a match between
cognitive abilities and the complexities required by a role in an organisational
hierarchy. The sad truth is that there seems to be no agreed method of really
assessing the cognitive capability of our employees and even less the
complexity of decisions at a particular level in and organisational structure. We
tend to confuse IQ or job performance with capability and quickly push high
performers towards the Peter Principle where they can no longer cope with the
complexity of their roles. The lack of understanding of the concept of capability
is probably why most ignore the real motor to engagement and focus the
decoration.
2. Commitment
When you ask children what they want to grow up to be the response is often
contingent on the last cool thing they saw or the influence of a prominent
figure in their lives. As we grow up our value systems change and while some
of us have a clear vision of what we want to be at an early age, many of us
wait until after secondary education to figure out what path to take. In the
end we wind up getting a job based on our education and experience rather
than asking ourselves ‘how can I arrange my background in such a way so I
can have the kind of work I value’.
Commitment is based on Value Systems. If we value something we tend to
be committed to it, like being a good parent or an ace bridge player. The bad
news is that most employers don’t care about our value systems but the good
news is that our value systems can be changed or enhanced and that effective
leadership goes a long way in helping us arrange our values in such a way as

3. to align ourselves with a common goal. And while an employer should not
necessarily care about the details of your value system they may value the
contribution you make enough to invest in helping you define it. And if that
is not the case an individual should take the time to understand what they
really value through self-development or coaching.
3. Identify Individual Strengths
Knowing your strengths goes hand in hand with finding a value system that
works for you. If we lived in a perfect world each child would learn from an
early age about their strengths, how to develop them and how to apply them
to their lives. Unfortunately in the real world we often arrive at our first job
knowing what academic subjects we were good at but without a clue as to what
our real strengths are. The truth is that education proves that we are capable
of learning and gives us some fundamentals but the real learning takes place
at work and in life.
This begs of course the question, are employers responsible for helping their
employees discover their strengths or should the job giver just encourage
employees to figure it out themselves. Fortunately there are relatively easy
ways to establish at least a high level profile of an individual’s strengths and is
a well worth the investment in progressive talent management. The same thing
goes when looking at our own lives. Knowing our strengths is a major step in
leading an engaged life.
4. The right skills
It goes without saying that in order to perform a task you need the appropriate
skills. Companies spend a lot of effort in developing competence models that
describe the skills that are required for each role that exists in an enterprise.
The world has even evolved as far as to include “soft” skills that deal with
matters such as conflict management and negotiation. We start our careers
with a bag full of technical skills to which we add a few soft skills along the
way, but new developments in management science tell us that we need less
and less of these skills as we climb the corporate ladder and have to rely on
such vague concepts as intuition and feeling.
Brilliant engineers fail because they don’t know how to collaborate in a team.
Managers disengage their employees because they are not aware of the social
dynamics of their teams. Major Banks go bust because of a trader’s inability
to manage his emotional biases while making decisions that increase
Operational Risk. Not so long ago, qualities like Leadership and
Entrepreneurship were shrouded in myth. Today we understand the technical
as well as the emotional skills that required to successfully discharge all
requirements of a role.
5. Meaning
Pure engagement or “Flow” does not require meaning as it is based on some
kind of absorption in an activity. It can even be addictive such as becoming a
workaholic, shopaholic or compulsive gambler. The element required to make
engagement both positive and sustainable is meaning. Both collectively and

4. individually we seek to find meaning by gravitating towards a Vision, by
completing a mission with integrity to a set of values. Sounds good? But
sadly, for many of us neither Vision, Mission nor Values are clearly defined and
thus lack meaning. It amazes me that often when asking a CEO about his
vision for the enterprise he or she quotes something that was written by some
copywriter in the annual report.
Positive Psychology has taught us that the pinnacle of well-being is living a
meaningful life. While many organisations and individuals have taken up the
mantra of “happiness through Positive Psychology”, it will be a short-lived fad
unless we correctly understand what that means. Happiness, as related to
living in a kind of euphoric state is unfortunately short lived and can only be
extended through Engagement and finally find a sustainable positive trajectory
by applying both positive emotions and engagement to something that has
meaning.
In the end it’s simple but not easy. At the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
rests “Self-Actualisation”. The term has gone out of fashion but the concept has
a strange similarity to more modern research. If we don’t get the foundation right
hundreds of engagement drivers will not help to bring us into flow, define the
vision that is right for our lives and align our vision with those of a collective in
order to create a better organisation and in the end a better world.
About the Author
Challenge conventional wisdom and find new ways to remove the barriers that
keep you or your organisation from reaching their potential. Greg Kontusz is an
international executive and thought leader on Organisational Effectiveness. To
discover more visit www.totalmanagementsys.com