Unpopular post alert.
We read a lot these days about low employee engagement. Fingers usually point at managers, and often for good reason.
But I can’t help but wonder how much of the ennui with jobs is down to people choosing not to engage.
Usually not intentionally. Engaging takes effort, and many people simply don’t get into the habit of making the effort.
This is likely an unpopular opinion in today’s relentless messaging that leaders only have responsibilities and employees only have rights.
But it’s not the responsibility of an organisation’s leaders to make anyone engage, any more that it’s their responsibility to grow people.
To be clear, it is the responsibility of a company’s leadership to create an environment for people to flourish. It is also their responsibility to shape a culture which bonds and invites, and to inject purpose into the organisation’s work.
But if we’re all so busy shouting for companies and managers to treat us like adults, then we need to recognise that with adulthood comes a lot of responsibility.
So if you lead an organisation, create an environment where your team can both engage and grow. But it is then up to them whether to make use of those or not.
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