The Truth About Employee Engagement

A bestselling author and business guru tells how to improve your job satisfaction and performance. In his sixth fable, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni takes on a topic that almost everyone can relate to: the causes of a miserable job. Millions of workers, even those who have carefully chosen careers based on true passions and interests, dread going to work, suffering each day as they trudge to jobs that make them cynical, weary, and frustrated. It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable. Through the story of a CEO turned pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three elements that make work miserable -- irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity -- and gives managers and their employees the keys to make any job more fulfilling. As with all of Lencioni?s books, this one is filled with actionable advice you can put into effect immediately. In addition to the fable, the book includes a detailed model examining the three signs of job misery and how they can be remedied. It covers the benefits of managing for job fulfillment within organizations -- increased productivity, greater retention, and competitive advantage -- and offers examples of how managers can use the applications in the book to deal with specific jobs and situations. Patrick Lencioni (San Francisco, CA) is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational health. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives and executive teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-tech startups to universities and nonprofits. His clients include AT&T, Bechtel, Boeing, Cisco, Sam?s Club, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Allstate, Visa, FedEx, New York Life, Sprint, Novell, Sybase, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Lencioni is the author of six bestselling books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He previously worked for Oracle, Sybase, and the management consulting firm Bain & Company.

The Truth About Employee Engagement was originally published as The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. A bestselling author and business guru tells how to improve job satisfaction and performance. In his sixth fable, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni takes on a topic that almost everyone can relate to: job misery. Millions of workers, even those who have carefully chosen careers based on true passions and interests, dread going to work, suffering each day as they trudge to jobs that make them cynical, weary, and frustrated. It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable. Through the story of a CEO turned pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three elements that make work miserable -- irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity -- and gives managers and their employees the keys to make any job more engaging. As with all of Lencioni’s books, this one is filled with actionable advice you can put into effect immediately. In addition to the fable, the book includes a detailed model examining the three root causes of job misery and how they can be remedied. It covers the benefits of managing for job engagement within organizations -- increased productivity, greater retention, and competitive advantage -- and offers examples of how managers can use the applications in the book to deal with specific jobs and situations. Patrick Lencioni is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational health. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives and executive teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-tech startups to universities and nonprofits. His clients include. AT&T, Direct TV, JCPenney, Microsoft, Nestle, Northwestern Mutual, Southwest Airlines and St. Jude Chilren’s Research Hospital. Lencioni is the author of ten bestselling books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Advantage. He previously worked for Oracle, Sybase, and the management consulting firm Bain & Company.

Discover how you can make your employees more fulfilled—and more successful—in their jobs It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable—and that even the most well-meaning manager can miss the causes. According to Patrick Lencioni, three underlying factors make a job miserable—anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurement. Based on Lencioni's The Truth About Employee Engagement model, the Managing for Employee Engagement Workshop will help managers understand the root causes of job misery and provides action items to develop an engaged workforce. In this workshop, managers will: Examine The Truth About Employee Engagement model and explore the effects of job misery on employees, managers, and organizations Use the feedback from a 180-degree assessment to identify your behaviors which may contribute to employee misery Learn simple yet powerful techniques for making your employees' jobs more fulfilling and more productive This guide provides facilitators and trainers with everything needed to create a high-impact half-day or one-day workshop for managers on the topic of employee engagement. This comprehensive workshop package includes the following: Detailed instructions for preparing, delivering and following up a workshop A script for a half-day or one-day workshop Stories that highlight key aspects of the model Flash Drive with slides, sample agendas, video clips and other helpful tools. Frequently asked questions A poster illustrating the model Sample Self-Assessment Sample Participant Workbook* *A Participant Workbook is required for all workshop attendees. The Truth About Employee Engagement was originally published as The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.

USE THE POWER OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TO IGNITE PASSION, PURPOSE, AND PRODUCTIVITY IN EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR STAFF Successful managers understand that their job is to help employees do their best work, not simply give orders. The Manager's Guide to Employee Engagement shows leaders at all levels how to build relationships that support collaboration and drive meaningful performance improvement. Learn how to: Foster loyalty, trust, and commitment in all your employees Create a culture of positive thinking Empower employees to act as internal entrepreneurs Align employee and organizational values and goals Become "the best boss ever"--without losing sight of business goals Learn how to make your employees engaged and successful--and facilitate your own success at the same time. Briefcase Books, written specifically for today's busy manager, feature eye-catching icons, checklists, and sidebars to guide managers step-by-step through everyday workplace situations. Look for these innovative design features to help you navigate through each page: Clear definitions of key terms and concepts Tactics and strategies for engaging employees Tips for executing the tactics in the book Practical advice for minimizing the possibility of error Warning signs for when things are about to go wrong Examples of successful engagement tactics Specific planning procedures, tactics, and hands-on techniques

"Why is it that so many leaders make employee engagement a low priority? Why don't they hold themselves and others more accountable for making it happen? Two primary reasons: either they don't care to - or they don't know how to. This book was written for members of that latter group. And it's for those leaders who get that effective strategies and plans without dedicated people executing them fall short of expectations, that great products without team members providing quality service will not build customer loyalty, that competitive wages and benefits are not the only things that motivate employees."--Book cover.

How to foster happier employees for a healthier bottom line Managers could learn a lot from a message echoed by generations of dairy farmers: "Contented cows give better milk." This book is not, repeat, not a management tome. In this fully revised and expanded edition to a book which absolutely, positively makes the case that treating people right is one of the best things any business can do for its bottom line, Contented Cows Still Give Better Milk offers sound, practical advice for those who know that their reputation as an employer is as important as bandwidth. Offers updated case studies and new examples from on-site research in a number of real organizations, as well as inspiring examples of companies that know how to do it right . . . and few that didn't Fad-free prescriptive advice informed by the authors' combined four-plus decades of training and consulting with thousands of managers and employees, conducting employee engagement surveys, and translating the attendant learning to management audiences in a form they can appreciate and use Coauthor Bill Catlette's Bottom Line Leadership Seminar has helped thousands of managers become more effective leaders Direct from the horse's . . . actually cow's mouth, this fully revised and expanded second edition will teach readers that having a focused, engaged, and capably led workforce is one of the best things any organization can do for its bottom line.

During the past two decades, few pursuits have captured the passion of American business as fervently as the quest to unleash the power of people. While some of those pursuits have been fruitful, significant employee engagement remains largely untapped. In this captivating tale, author and consultant Les Landes offers a new path to the promised land of extraordinary employee engagement. It begins with a thought-provoking premise about the essential differences between human beings and other living creatures—imagination and free will—and how those two qualities are inseparably linked. That premise opens the door to a fresh understanding and appreciation for human nature in the workplace, and it sets the stage for a breakthrough in optimizing employee performance. The book tells the story of two principal characters: Tom Payton, a human resources and employee communications manager who’s looking for insights on employee engagement as well as a promotion, and David Kay, an enigmatic consultant who guides Tom on a journey of discovery. Over the course of the story, their conversations run the gamut from the silly to the sublime, from the humorous to the serious, from the novelty of Barney the purple dinosaur to the elegant wisdom of Henry David Thoreau. Together, Tom and David explore essential topics related to employee engagement, such as continuous improvement, performance development, and communication. They also challenge mistaken notions about people in the workplace, and the ideas captured in their dialogue offer approaches to employee engagement based on insights from historically significant thinkers. This unique business fable shows how tapping into the power and purpose of imagination and free will can help you create the type of organization where employees love to work and customers love doing business.

"This step-by-step guide that will teach you: what employee engagement is (it does not mean happy or satisfied) ; how engagement directly drives sales, profits, and eve stock price ; the secret recipes for making anyone feel engaged ; 7 questions to ask that will identify your engagement weakness ; how to make your strategic vision memorable and "sticky" ; how to implement a complete engagement plan in only 8 weeks!).