Originally published Oct. 21, 2014 on Forbes.
"A superior leader is a person who can bring ordinary people together to achieve extraordinary results." I learned this a few dozen years ago at Wharton, from an entrepreneur who had enjoyed tremendous success. He was right.
Employee engagement is not about hiring brilliant people who are uniquely talented. It is about bringing human beings together so that they magnify each other's strengths.
I know a teenager who is passionate about soccer, and has played on many teams. On one team, he and his peers were unbeatable. They talked to each other on the field, moved as a team, passed to the open man, and helped each other out. On another team, equally talented, it's every man for himself. Winning is a function more of luck and individual effort, than of teamwork. The kid still dreams about that first team, because with them, he was the best version of himself.
Yesterday I spoke to a friend who has an amazing track record in the real estate business. Again and again, he has built highly successful firms that were highly dependent on people. The centerpiece of his strategy is simple: be of service, and don't let people down. These two elements are genetically encoded into his being, and because of that, his teams have always recognized that "be of service" is not a slogan, it is the organization's reason for being.
Does your organization have an equally obvious reason for being? Do your leaders live this way, rather than just talk this way? Are your metrics and compensation plans and products and services and client service teams and culture all designed to reflect this reason for being?
Employee engagement depends on this sort of shared mission, because that's what elevates individuals to higher levels.
Employee engagement is not a program you paste onto the side of your organization. It's either the heart of your organization, or the result of a heart transplant. I don't mean to be melodramatic, but it really is that basic. People are superb at sniffing out fake entreaties to "work as a team", "do your best", and "rise to the occasion". Such pleas are usually one-sided; you work for us, you owe us, work harder - or else.
Here's the problem... you don't produce extraordinary performances from ordinary, outdated, unimaginative management practices.
No way.
Last night I wrote a presentation about How to See the Light in Others. It's a long way from an employee engagement enterprise solution, but I'm a long way from being interested in enterprise solutions. What interests me are the ways that individuals can rise to an occasion. The entrepreneur whose quote opens this article never sought or received approval from Corporate. To the contrary, three times he built a company up to great success; two times he sold that company, then bought it back and saved it after the corporate buyers mismanaged it.
To engage other human beings, you have to be human. When corporations lose that personal touch, they lose the ability to engage employees. Fortunately, even large companies can be run with a human touch; it just takes a leader who truly cares about bringing out the best in others.