Engagement in a team isn’t only about showing up on time and sending emails without spelling mistakes. It’s far more about committing to the decisions that are made — even when you don’t naturally agree with them. The question is, how do you create engagement in yourself?
There are days when you come home from work tired because you were off form and couldn’t concentrate. Everything was a struggle, and the problems were queuing up. That’s what I call bad tiredness. Other days you’ve been in full swing, super-dedicated and completely absorbed in the work. You come home tired then too, but that’s what I call good tiredness.
Engagement in your work gives you good tiredness, and if it were placed in the food pyramid, it would sit at the bottom alongside the essentials: vegetables, water and wholegrains. That’s because when you’re highly engaged, you perform 50 % more than when you feel forced (W. Wyatt, 2006). It’s absolutely vital for your performance in the team that you know how to influence your engagement.
Start with ’why’
The goal was ambitious. Public interest was huge. There were experts to help and plenty of money. It was the early 1900s, and Samuel Langley had set a goal of being the first to pilot a plane. Harvard-educated Langley was one of America’s most respected scientists and received a substantial grant from the war department of the day. That was a lot of money back then, and it made his flight experiment the only one to receive state funding. Langley had a whole elite of experts and everything it would take to secure success — or did he?
Engagement in your work gives you good tiredness, and if it were placed in the food pyramid, it would sit at the bottom alongside the essentials: vegetables, water and wholegrains.
A few hundred kilometres away, two brothers ran a small bicycle shop. From there they worked on their flying machine and had the same ambition as Langley. Their burning engagement had already created huge support and enthusiasm in the town. Neither the two brothers nor their volunteer helpers had higher education or state funding. Despite that, on a cold Thursday afternoon in December 1903, the small town witnessed the underdog Wright brothers beat Langley and make world history (J. Tobin, 2004).
The Wright brothers had a ’why’. That is, an answer to the question ’Why are we doing this?’. In the same way, you’ll find that knowing why you do what you do is the key to your engagement (S. Sinek, 2011). Your ’why’ is what you believe in. It’s a state in which you proactively and optimistically invent new methods and processes to overcome the barriers you meet along the way. When you know your ’why’, the odds of succeeding are far greater. What’s more, your good results will give you recognition and create a self-reinforcing spiral of further engagement (A. Bakker, 2007).
Your ’why’ is what you believe in. It’s a state in which you proactively and optimistically invent new methods and processes to overcome the barriers you meet along the way.
Days when you experience good tiredness are therefore also marked by your motivation coming from within, unlike days of bad tiredness. There, the energy comes from outside, and you need other people’s acceptance and recognition to reach the goal. In the long run, that wears you down.
’Why’ isn’t to be invented, but discovered
The paradox is that you move further away from your ’why’ the more you focus on getting your own needs met. Conversely, you move closer to your ’why ’ the more you focus on how your work can make a difference for others (R. Baumeister, 2012). We find the reason in the origin of the word engagement:
Engagement comes from the French mettre en gage, which was used in connection with pawning something. Later the term was used for going into battle, and later still as a promise of marriage. To engage comes to mean putting yourself on the line. Putting yourself on the line requires a cause. A cause will always, directly or indirectly, involve other people. Otherwise it makes no sense.
Engagement comes from the French mettre en gage, which was used in connection with pawning something.
It means you can’t put yourself on the line if you’re mainly keeping an eye on your ego and your needs. Langley and his team enjoyed a great deal of public attention, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that attention created a high degree of self-consciousness, which in turn affected their engagement negatively. Conversely, it wouldn’t surprise me either if the more anonymous Wright brothers found it easier to keep their focus on the cause, let themselves be absorbed in the project, and so perform.
You can see a powerful example of a ’why’ in the English chef Jamie Oliver’s talk ’Teach every child about food’ (J. Oliver, 2010).
Sources and more inspiration
Debunking the Myths of Employee Engagement
W. Wyatt, 2006
To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight
J. Tobin, 2004, Simon and Schuster
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
S. Sinek, 2011, Portfolio Hardcover
The Role of Personal Resources in the Job Demands-Resources Model
A. Bakker & D. Xanthopoulou, 2007, International Journal of Stress Management
Some Key Differences between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life
R.. Baumeister, 2012, Journal of Positive Psychology
Ord der forandrer
P. Lausten & L. Verstraete-Hansen, 2007, Museum Tusculanums Forlag
J. Oliver, 2010, TED.com
