Engaged employees have the highest productivity because they show up mentally and physically every day with a high degree of motivation to deliver extraordinary results.
The following six strategies will keep you engaged at work.
1. Build friendships with people at work.
• On a scale of 1 (low)- 10(high), how satisfied are you with the friendships you have at work?
• Love and connection is the most important emotional need that people have to stay motivated.
• We spend roughly 50% more time with our customers, coworkers, and bosses than we do with our friends, significant others, children and other relatives combined.
• Gallup research shows that without a best friend at work, the chances of being engaged in your job are 1 in 12.
• Gallup research shows that employees who have a close friendship with their boss are more than 2.5 times as likely to be satisfied with their job.
Action Item: If you want to be more engaged at work, develop at least three strong friendships at the office, maybe even one with your boss/senior.
2. Develop a learning and growth plan on a quarterly basis.
• On a scale of 1 (low)- 10(high), how satisfied are you with the opportunity you have to learn and grow in your current role?
• Learning and growth is a life-long emotional need that people have to stay motivated.
• You currently have skills, behaviors and experience that enable you to deliver results.
Action Item: Identify learning and growth objectives and develop a 90-day action plan to improve your skills, behaviors and experience in required areas to help you achieve your full potential.
3. Contribute to the success of the people around you.
• On a scale of 1 (low)- 10(high), how satisfied are you with the contribution you make to the success of both internal and external people?
• Contribution is a life-long emotional need that people have to stay motivated.
Action Item: Identify three activities that you do that contribute to the success of others. Develop a plan to spend more time doing these activities and/or add new activities within the scope of your role.
4. Step into your significance.
• On a scale of 1 (low)- 10(high), how significant and important is the work that you do?
• Significance is a life-long emotional need that people have to stay motivated.
• When you do activities that you love to do, you feel a sense of purpose and significance.
Action Item: Identify what you do that makes you feel significant and important. Develop a plan to spend more time doing these activities and/or add new activities within the scope of your role.
5. Embrace variety and challenge.
• On a scale of 1 (low)- 10(high), how satisfied are you with the amount of variety and challenge in your current role?
• Variety and challenge is a life-long emotional need that people have to stay motivated.
• Boredom sets in if you don’t have enough variety and challenge in your role.
Action Item: Identify what you do that makes you feel a sense of variety and challenge. Develop a plan to spend more time doing these activities and/or add new activities within the scope of your role.
6. Create certainty to achieve career success.
• On a scale of 1 (low)- 10(high), how satisfied are you with the amount of certainty and control you have related to your career success?
• Certainty is a life-long emotional need that people have to stay motivated.
• Fear and pessimism set in if you don’t have enough certainty related to your career success.
Action Item: Define what career success looks like to you. Reach out to your boss (and other coaches and mentors) to help you create more certainty related to your career success.