Leadership Engagement: the Next Big Thing

Leadership Engagement: the Next Big Thing

Why the C-Suite Should Care about Executive and HiPo Engagement

You’re the CEO of a mid-sized firm, and the vendor you’ve hired to run your employee engagement survey has just told you that with the survey closing in 24 hours, only 25% of your executive population has responded. Is this good or bad news?

Recently, I described how the experts I interviewed for my dissertation research asserted that employee engagement might manifest differently based on population characteristics such as demographic traits. Besides millennials, the group they talked about most frequently as critical to engage is the executive leadership (e.g., Director and above) population.

Intuitively, this makes sense. Leaders are the agents of the employment relationship for most staff, so it is easy to imagine a snowball effect if a leader disengages. If a leader disengages, she is less likely to provide her team conditions that nurture engagement, such as authentic, two-way communication; recognition, or connecting the dots between individual objectives and business strategy. Conversely, when a leader is engaged, she is likely to empower, inspire and energize her team, leading to increased engagement and, of course, business performance.

But why executive leaders and not all managers? At the time I was conducting my research, the idea of executive engagement wasn’t on my radar and I didn’t think to probe – now, of course, I really wish I had. I have a theory: if one has a limited budget to invest, it makes sense to focus on the most influential decision-makers in the management ranks. I welcome alternative hypotheses from readers and leaders.

So, getting back to the original question, is it good or bad news that your executive team hasn’t completed your survey? If they are out working their tails off on high-value projects, maybe that's OK. But what if they are not responding because they are disengaged? That's bad news, not just for today but for tomorrow. 

It’s worth noting that not very many companies have implemented engagement programs targeted at executives yet. The progressive practitioners I interviewed are leaders in our profession.  I concur that they are right about the executive population, and I assert that there is an equally important and overlapping population we need to focus on through similar logic: high potential (or HiPo) employees, who not only perform exceptionally today, but who are also expected to lead the business in achieving results over time. 

I'd love to hear more from others who are thinking along these lines and your best practices.