Top Tens of Employee Engagement * Actionable Advice from Industry Leaders

David Zinger just published his latest e-book collection: The Top Tens of Employee Engagement. A collection of advice on engagement from members of the Employee Engagement Network, The Top Tens is a solid handbook of ideas for engagement along a broad spectrum of needs.

While I’m thrilled to have been included with my “10 Steps to Realizing Strategic Engagement,” I was particularly impressed with how well the advice from so many contributors aligned with each other.

For example, Jennifer Schulte of Mars offered “Strategies to Impact Engagement across an Organization.” Her recommendations to Start at the Top, Focus on a Bold Goal, and Celebrate and Replicate Those Who Can Engage are an excellent compliment to my advice to Secure Executive Sponsorship, Define Clear Goals for Your Corporate Culture, and Frequently Recognize Contributors in a Timely Way.

Considering the importance of employee recognition – telling employees specifically how their efforts contributed to company success and how greatly they are valued in the organization – to creating a workplace environment in which employees want to engage, I was also quite pleased to see the number of people who mentioned recognition in one way or another. In no particular order (and not an exhaustive list):

Wally Bock: “Praise effort and highlight superior performance”

Sanna Wolsteholme: “Praise. Catch people doing things right.”

Terrence Seamon: “Appreciate the people that you have. … Give kudos to your people as often as you can. … Say thank you.”

Kelly Eskridge: “Give thanks. … When you thank people for something, there’s a much better chance they’ll do it again.”

David Marklew: “Show some appreciation, do it often, let it flow freely.”

And the final word from David Zinger himself, his seventh tip on engagement:

“Employees are responsible for their own engagement, we are all accountable for everyone’s engagement. No one has a bigger role in engagement than the individual themselves – if engagement is to be, it is up to me. We are accountable for other people’s engagement and we can influence their engagement – if engagement is to be, it is up to we.”

With that in mind, what are you doing to influence the engagement of those around you? Are you saying thanks? Are you actively looking for ways you can express appreciation to your colleagues? It’s certainly a solid start on the road to engagement.