We often think of engagement as happily doing what we need to do at work. That’s a bit like saying a pile of lumber is the same as a house. The lumber is an essential part of the finished product, but it’s not nearly enough.
That’s why Forbes columnist Kevin Kruse wants us to look at engagement in a slightly different light.
At the highest level, engagement is really about having an emotional commitment to an organization and its goals—a commitment that leads you to do what you don’t want to do. It’s about happily and willingly giving the extra effort above and beyond the job description because you really believe in the work and the vision of the company.
Kruse calls it “discretionary effort.” You still get paid the same if you do less, but you actually choose to do more because you are motivated by something beyond that paycheck. And included in the mix is a willingness to do things that are tough, things that are no fun, things that in and of themselves do NOT make you happy. But you do them because of that emotional commitment to ring the bell. That’s real engagement.
I have seen companies full of smiling, comfortable people going nowhere fast. But I’ve also seen companies with people who work long hours and sweat and strain and wear themselves out in pursuit of a dream. That’s not the shallow happiness of a comfy chair and a cold glass of lemonade—it’s the deep happiness of people who’ve made an emotional commitment to each other and to the goals they share.
There’s no stopping a company filled with people putting in that discretionary effort because they believe in what they’re doing. That, my friends, is engagement.