The most crucial element of employee engagement

Almost two decades ago, Gallup created the Q12 of employee engagement, which features 12 questions companies use to gauge worker enthusiasm and motivation. Soon after, a multi-billion-dollar industry was born, and leaders started obsessing about how to get and keep employees “engaged.”

I thought most of it was crap and still do. For me, the elusive quest for employee engagement is like watching a puppy chase its tail. A pup will rarely catch its tail, but even if Fido manages to snag it, he’ll soon be on to something else.

I’m not saying you want disengaged employees, but where does it end?

Once you go down this path of “training” your employees to keep them engaged, they will continue to need stuff just to stay at that same level of engagement. Offer a kid a cookie, and he’ll do what you say. Give a kid a million cookies, and he’ll lose interest in cookies.