How do you personally stay engaged with your work?

[David Zinger]

Many of us on this network are focused on engaging others in our roles as leaders, managers, writers, consultants, etc.

Do we practice what we preach?

How do you stay engaged with your work?

What are your personal tips, tactics, strategies, approaches, or key ideas.

I would love this forum to be a personal and meaningful discussion about our own engagement with work.

[Terrence Seamon]

David,
You asked, "How do you stay engaged with your work?"

This is a very good question.

First, you've got to be doing work that you love.

Then, you've got to be able to recover after having a bad day. S__t happens, right? Things (or people) come along that knock you down and ruin your outlook.

To re-constitute myself after such storms, I've learned the lesson of the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz: stuff yourself back together.

How? Think about: Why am I here? What am I called to do? and Who am I here to help?*

By thinking about these things, I reconnect and re-engage with my purpose, my work, whether at the office or at home or in other spheres of life.

Terry

* Something that works for me is to continually work on my personal Strategic Plan. It starts with my Mission Statement:

- Why am I here?

- What am I called to do?

- For Whom?

Next, my Vision Statement and Goals (Where am I going? What do I plan to accomplish?); a statement of my Values (What's important to me); and my Value Proposition (What I can do for You).

All together, these components provide me with a sense of purpose and direction for the journey through life.

[Stephen Randall]

Terrence, you wrote, "you've got to be doing work that you love.." But I have many times needed to work on something I didn't love. And thinking about my purpose, goals, etc. didn't help much. What do you do then?

[Michael Gibbs]

I feel the same as Terrence. The biggest thing that I have to do to keep myself engaged is to remind myself why I am doing what I am doing.

I work to improve the environment around me for all involved..

I work to ensure that students have the technical resources available to them so that they can receive their education (specifically, through stop-in, hands-on, individually-focused technical support).

I work to ensure that my staff is equipped with everything they need to accomplish the tasks that are asked of them and to be fulfilled as employees by having the necessary equipment, a work environment conducive to productivity (and engagement!), and opportunities for advancement.

I work to ensure that my customers and coworkers have the most productive and enjoyable workday that they possibly can.

The biggest thing that I have discovered about myself over the past few years is that while I had thought my passion and future vocation would involve computers, it is evolving into something that I had not anticipated. I have learned that I am infinitely more passionate about interacting with and helping people than I am about working with computers "And that has made all the difference." I go to work everyday not to fix computers, but to make peoples' lives better (usually, by fixing their computers) and THAT is what keeps me engaged. The more that I feel I am making the world a better place as a result of the work that I do, the more engaged I feel myself becoming, and the easier it is for me to get up, go to work and love (almost!) every minute of it.

Mike

[Jean Douglas, CMC]

I love what I do. Talking, reading, measuring, enabling, understanding, learning, etc. about engagement energizes me. As Michael said " making the world a better place" is at the root of it for me. I am naturally an extremely optimistic person finding value or a lesson in some of the most disastrous of situations, but I too have my down days and wonder what it all means.

To me, when I really look at what engages me, what I do and why I do it (employee engagement consulting) boils down to children. I want children to have a wonderful, safe and loving experience as they grow up. One way I can touch the lives of the thousands of children out there is by working hard at making the workplace a better place to be. I believe that truly engaged employees go home feeling more satisfied, content, competent, with their dignity and self-respect intact which should mean positive interactions at home and with others. A domino effect in a way that should prevent children from bearing the brunt of a stress-filled, unhappy parent coming home from a miserable day at work. In addition to this, children will learn that employment is not the end of living but can be an enhancement to their lives.

I also take time to look around me in wonder at what I see in nature and heed the advice of my grandchildren who remind me that it is important to take time to play.

[Kevin Burns - Attitude Expert]

David,

I don't believe that you have have to be doing something you love or be passionate about your work to be engaged in it. As a matter of fact, I don't think engagement is anything more than a reflection of personal values. If you have strong values like keeping your word, integrity, conscientiousness and honesty, you will be engaged in your work simply because of this one thing: you made a promise to do the work and if your values reflect that you keep your promises, you will engage yourself because you said you would - no excuses.

Now that may be a hard pill to swallow for some but I find the vast majority of people who are disconnected with their work just simply don't care: about their work, about how others may be affected by their actions or even about themselves. Poor values is in direct proportion to a poor work-ethic. Improve the values and you improve the work-ethic. But the good news is that you don't have to like your work to be very good at it.

My wife is a caterer. Does she love it and is she passionate about it? Nope. But is she good at it? One of the best. She is passionate about Natural Medicine and she will be a Naturopathic Doctor within a year. But the truth is that when she agrees to take on a catering contract, her philosophy is that her meal should be better than the average person could get at home - and they are. It's her values of keeping her agreements that drives her to be engaged and focused on preparing the best meal she is capable of.

I might be passionate about joining the NBA but at five and a half feet tall, I might not be able to achieve my goal - regardless of my level of passion and regardless of whether or not it's something I love.

I am engaged in my work simply because I chose this path and this profession. I made a decision to do what I do. Therefore, it's up to me to be researched, prepared and come from either a depth of knowledge or a depth of experience in everything I say and do. I make a promise to my clients to be all of those things and I keep my word.

The problem is that most companies don't have the courage to really tell it like it is to their new-hires. There are no consequences for employees not being engaged. Show up 15 minutes late and have you pay docked by 3% that day. The employee didn't keep their promise so why should the employer? It's a values-based argument.

Want to keep employees engaged? Show them the consequences of only working with a half-effort. Put it into a contract and have the employee CHOOSE to sign it. Once they've made their choice, they've got to keep their promise: pay for work.

We've got to start challenging people on their work ethic. You won't ever see a person of high integrity and high morals cheating the company of time, money and performance. Change the values and you change the level of engagement.

[Stephen Randall]

Kevin Burns wrote:
I don't believe that you have have to be doing something you love or be passionate about your work to be engaged in it. As a matter of fact, I don't think engagement is anything more than a reflection of personal values. If you have strong values like keeping your word, integrity, conscientiousness and honesty, you will be engaged in your work simply because of this one thing: you made a promise to do the work and if your values reflect that you keep your promises, you will engage yourself because you said you would - no excuses.

For the most part, Kevin, I agree. But if you ARE doing your work, and are working in accord with your values, aren't there still degrees of engagement? If so, what determines these?

Kevin also wrote: Now that may be a hard pill to swallow for some but I find the vast majority of people who are disconnected with their work just simply don't care: about their work, about how others may be affected by their actions or even about themselves. Poor values is in direct proportion to a poor work-ethic. Improve the values and you improve the work-ethic. But the good news is that you don't have to like your work to be very good at it.

Yes, Kevin, I agree with this.

Kevin also wrote: Want to keep employees engaged? Show them the consequences of only working with a half-effort. Put it into a contract and have the employee CHOOSE to sign it. Once they've made their choice, they've got to keep their promise: pay for work.

Kevin, I know that at times I have worked with only "a half-effort." How can we define this, then perhaps use it as the basis for pay?

We've got to start challenging people on their work ethic. You won't ever see a person of high integrity and high morals cheating the company of time, money and performance. Change the values and you change the level of engagement.

Kevin, I agree with the last statement, yet I find that the 'values', 'virtues', or qualities of experience can be defined in many different ways. How do you define values? Does the employer always decide this?

[Craig Althof]

Anyone home? So many interactions, so little time...

As I've posted elsewhere, I feel 'engagement' is highly personal, so this group makes sense.

When things get too mundane for long stretches, I pull out my current back-burner "blue sky" project to re-energize for a while. It helps me re-connect with my need for creativity and learning new things (both core values). I am also staying productive (key "engagement" ingredient) as these back-burners are typically of real value strategically, just not urgent enough to be on the Hit List.

David, you wrote "I would love this forum to be a personal and meaningful discussion about our own engagement with work." Nice, compelling vision from our forum leader. There is no better way to truly understand engagement than to explore how each of us personally are / aren't engaged and how we are each impacted. But it appears there is a tiny barrier in the way of that study...we still can't land on a universal definition of "it".

I realize this is an old discussion, but I have to take exception to a comment. I don't think you can mandate engagement, or make it a condition of employment / getting paid. Having engaged employees is a privilege, not a right, of an employer.

[Stephen Randall]

Craig wrote: "I feel 'engagement' is highly personal, so this group makes sense."

Craig, would you elaborate on this statement? Sounds interesting.

Craig, you also wrote: '"David, you wrote "I would love this forum to be a personal and meaningful discussion about our own engagement with work." Nice, compelling vision from our forum leader. There is no better way to truly understand engagement than to explore how each of us personally are / aren't engaged and how we are each impacted. But it appears there is a tiny barrier in the way of that study...we still can't land on a universal definition of "it"."'

Craig, having just joined this network, I must agree. Right away, I found myself asking, "What is engagement?" In a welcoming PDF, I found "engagement is connection." These terms normally imply a connection of a person to something or some other things. However I know engagement can be defined in many ways, especially when one is concerned with 'personal' engagement, which needn't involve other people.

Is engagement just connection? Why not just use the word connection? Connection of what preexistent entity to what other entity/entities?

There are degrees of engagement. In English we have words and phrases implying that we identify different levels of engagement or involvement: holding back, resignation to doing the task, getting into it, being 'in it', involved, being absorbed, engrossed, preoccupied. We can even quantify these levels in various ways, with different degrees of precision, which I did for myself through the years, and for purposes of a pilot study on the relationship of involvement, productivity, and well-being which I did at Tandem Computers.

Three ways of defining engagement or involvement are to (1) estimate the percentage of one's involvement in the current scenario, compared to all of one's previous experiences of engagement; (2) estimate the levels of awareness, concentration, and energy in the current scenario, again compared to all one's previous experiences; and (3) estimate measures for twelve dimensions of the Optimal Work circle (see my blog at http://stevrandal.wordpress.com , where I'll soon post a piece on these different definitions).

To move a step further toward defining engagement we could simply take a close look at examples from our own experiences.

I have a speech I need to prepare. There's a feeling of dread. It's Monday, and the speech is to be delivered Thursday. It takes considerable effort to even think about getting started on the script. I need to get it done, but I don't want to. I could avoid the feeling of dread and the task of speechwriting, but I'm not going to be that irresponsible. So I allow the feeling to be there, and begin to make notes about the talk. The sense of dread gradually dissipates as I resign myself to doing the project and begin to relax into it.
I visualize myself speaking a few days from now, at a point along a linear time line that extends from here in the present to Thursday. I feel time flowing strongly and relentlessly in the background. There's pressure and a subtle sense of anxiety attending the flow of time. I could focus on the deadline up ahead and the feeling of time slipping by, and make myself more anxious, but I decide to let go of these unproductive concerns and focus on the work. The pressure and anxiety about the deadline gradually subside as I turn toward the work a little more.
After I get more of an outline for the talk, it begins to feel like writing this speech is a kind of "thing" that I have to do, something very separate from me, almost forced upon me. I notice my feeling that it's being imposed from outside. There's a tendency to take the idea at face value, to believe it and react to it. But from another perspective it's clear that no one is forcing me to do this. It's my decision. As this becomes very clear, I relax a bit and think about what to do next.
Although the task is no longer just an idea to me, I still experience the work from outside, as an observer who is not "into it." The papers feel distant from my body. I am aware of a lot of other objects in the room, as well as other things that I have to do in the next few days. My energy is somewhat scattered. The subject-object split and the scattered energy are recognized as signs that there is an opportunity for more involvement in the scenario. I could see these experiences as being normal, but from past experience it's clear that they are common, yet not "normal," and if I take them as being realistic for this kind of work, the work scenario will not improve.
I write down some more ideas that I want to present, visualize myself giving the speech, and check the list to see what is missing. I write down a few more ideas. I feel a little puzzled about the order of these ideas. There's some momentum to write more ideas down as well as a draw to examine the confusion. I know if I simply rush to put more ideas down, I may miss something important. I face the confusion, and soon realize that a couple of the topics would be better at a different place in the talk.
Things begin to flow a little more easily. Although time is not passing so strongly from past to present to future, more work "events" seem to be occurring every minute, as if some other kind of momentum was accelerating. I reorganize the list, then read the list from beginning to end, once again visualizing giving the talk. At this point I am considerably more involved in the work. I am not aware of other projects I have to do, or other objects in the room. I am not an observer separate from the work. In fact, there is only a slight boundary that is sometimes felt between my mind and body and the papers. When I am thinking, I am often not aware of any objects at all. The quality of thinking is different also, not so much like "I" am pushing the thoughts. Although a bit of effort is required on my part, the thoughts and the work seem to flow somewhat by themselves. And this is not just a feeling, I'm getting the work done more quickly. The insight about rearranging topics clearly came on its own, with no volition on my part. My feeling of time has changed considerably. Time has only a subtle flow apart from me and the work. I feel very little anxiety about time passing toward the deadline.
Now the writing really takes on a life of its own. Ideas come easily, and insights are frequent, surprising me again and again. The material seems completely original. The process is creative in the sense of presenting material that seems new and fresh, not arising from any apparent source. I experience wonder and awe at the process and the accuracy and value of the content written. I feel good about being able to participate in this process. Periodically there are little bits of pride that arise as I congratulate myself on my improved progress. I have thoughts about rewarding myself by taking a break. There seem to be more points at which these interruptions and others are noticed. I could take a break, but I know I would miss the strong flow of the work and the fulfillment I am experiencing, let alone the opportunity to get so much done so quickly. It is also realized that congratulating myself on "my" progress doesn't make much sense, since it doesn't feel like "I" am the source of the flow. These distractions are noticed and disappear very quickly.
There are no noticeable feelings of anxiety, fear, or pressure. Nor is there a feeling of time passing. I am not aware of objects in the room, nor of the work as a "thing" or project. There is little felt separation between "my" mind and the thinking and writing being done.
At some point, I get confused about the message I want to get across in the speech. There's a strong tendency to avoid the confusion, and a pull to continue the momentum of the work and figure out what to write next. My mind starts to wander, and I look at the clock and realize it's almost time for my favorite TV show. I know this is the best time to do this work, but pretty soon I'm thinking about how I might be able to finish my work after the show is over and during my free time the next couple of days. Yes, it seems possible! I think I have enough time. With some subtle anxiety lurking in the background, I put my work aside, and begin to watch the show.
The flow of work has stopped and time slips by quickly again. While I'm watching TV, I'm slightly anxious, subtly aware of what time it is and how much time I have till the end of the show, when I'll return to my work. Watching television is not a flow experience now, nor is it as enjoyable as I'd hoped it would be. My mind is divided between the show and being aware that I really want to do my work. I am self-consciously watching TV here in the present, feeling anxious and guilty about a job waiting for me in the future. My experience is divided into present and future, into an anxious self and the relentless flow of time. Besides anxiety, I also feel guilty or pressured about not getting the job done. The scenario is complicated, with my awareness divided, time partitioned into present and future, strongly ambivalent feelings about what's happening, and a persistent sense of separation between myself, the TV, and my work.

There are clearly many different degrees of engagement or involvement, with the deepest levels of involvement often being attained by subtle shifts of awareness and our relationships to various energies.

[Monica Diaz]

To me it is just about PASSION. I LOVE what I do, feel committed to my clients and team and engagement is really not an issue. I truly invite everyone I know to work at things they adore and can connect with. That is KEY! If you are at a job, you still need to find out what parts of it are important to you. Passion comes from

With regards to my team, we handle eachother like family. We are open and caring in our dealings, we push eachother to be best in what we do and we do not treat our relationships as if they were made of glass. We know we can weather any storm. We try to find ways to stay on the same side of things.

With our clients we make it a point to always be straightforward with them, to gain trust and breed mutual commitment. This energizes work and makes it about helping eachother, not just getting through a project.

WHen I do not feel engaged, I am extremely uncomfortable, so I reflect, sit down with my team or clients, and find ways to regroup.

[Monique Howat]

Focus and engagement cans start as a simple spark from within but should absolutely be nurtured from the top down.

How many times have you been in a job that you weren't absolutely delighted to start but became completely engaged and excited because it was contagious and stemming from everyone around you?

I think companies need to realize that motivation, stimulation and engagement are actions that can be hugely increased or decreased in staff by deeply ingraining it in their top managers so it flows in all their words and actions.