Resources: Engagement & Motivation

Tools

1. ‣StrengthsFinder – This online assessment from the Gallup organization identifies an individual’s top talents. Use it with your staff as the basis for a conversation about what motivates and engages them, and how they could best contribute their talents at work. (See First, Break All the Rules*, below, for guidance on holding these kinds of conversations.) To access the assessment, you’ll need a special code that you get when you purchase one of the Gallup strengths-related books (Now, Discover Your Strengths*, Strengths Finder 2.0*, or the brand new Strengths Based Leadership*) to access the assessment. But don’t buy your book used – the code is only good once!
   

Reading

1. ‣Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay* – The ABC’s (literally) of things managers can do to engage and retain their employees.
   

2. ‣Encouraging the Heart* – Builds on Kouzes and Posner’s seminal book, The Leadership Challenge*. “Encouraging the Heart” is one of the five practices of great leaders that the authors identified through their research into the “peak” leadership experiences of hundreds of individuals. This book dissects examples of what great leaders do to recognize and reward their employees, and then outlines the seven key things they do that make them so good at it. The last section of the book provides a list of 150 suggestions for implementing the concepts. 
   

3. ‣First, Break All the Rules* – Based on research by the Gallup group to uncover what explains the success of top-performing organizations and workgroups, this book asserts that it all comes down to great managers doing what it takes to fully engage their employees. The authors suggest that employees’ answers to twelve key questions (the famous Gallup “Q12”) are the best indicator of their engagement, and they outline four key things managers can do to ensure that employees answer these questions in the affirmative.
   

Websites

1. ‣Chief Happiness Officer – A blog about happiness at work. While it’s sometimes a little more self-referential than I’d like, the writers do a great job of sharing sound research and inspiring examples about the hows and whys of creating a workplace where people are happier and therefore more effective.
   

2. ‣Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program – The American Psychological Association recognizes employers who exemplify best practices in creating a “psychologically healthy workplace”. Most of those practices are the same ones that boost employee engagement. The website for this program includes information about best practices, profiles of award winners, and links to related articles and research.
   

*Full disclosure: The links marked with an asterisk (*) take you to view more information about those resources. If you decide to purchase them, I’ll earn a small commission – but only if you use these links to do so. Note that I never recommend products I haven’t reviewed myself and don’t believe offer real value.