Closing the Employee Engagement Gap

On a recent trip, I picked up a book at LAX that was written to show how great companies unlock employee potential for superior results, sharing stories from the authors' experiences as consultants on workforce effectiveness and employee engagement.

What I read were inspiring examples of how leaders (or what we may think of as senior management) can tap into their employees' energy and passion and turn them into a competitive advantage. Although I agree with David Zinger's criticism of the "us vs. them" mentality, I still believe there is much value that can nonetheless be gleaned from the book.

For those of you who are unfamilar with it, the premise is that there are five keys that, when together, unlock employees' potential (the "Them" in the list below):

1. Know Them.
2. Grow Them.
3. Inspire Them.
4. Involve Them.
5. Reward Them.

Over the coming weeks, I will look at how these five keys dovetail with the employee engagement model in Insightlink's 4Cs Employee Surveys.