Employee Engagement

After getting in, the lock bar comes down across your lap and the theme park attendant walks by to inform you of certain doom should you dare to stick your hands up or outside of the roller coaster car.   Then, with much clacking and lurching, the coaster starts forward and you're off!   A gentle turn or two and you are headed towards the long climb that begins the ride.   The coaster glides up hill, slowing almost to a complete stop, when the chain engages and pulls the coaster up the incline.

Think about what might happen if the chain didn't engage: you'd roll backwards a short ways a come to a stop.   That'd be exciting, wouldn't it?     Yet some people would appear to prefer such an outcome in their professional careers - they get to the start of a potentially great ride and then ... fail to engage.   They slide backwards, come to a stop, and sooner or later are removed from the track to make way for someone else.    Although there are likely as many reasons for this as there are people who succumb to them, some of the more common ones I've noticed are as follows:

Fear of Failure

Fear of failure simply means that the individual would rather not try at all than try and not succeed.   While a small amount of fear can be energizing to some individuals, it is paralyzing to others.     What will everyone think?     Will everyone laugh?

The fact is that failure is a reality of life.   Benjamin Franklin is claimed to have said, "I did not fail the test, I simply learned 100 ways to do it wrong."     Failure is the basis of success, provided you learn from those failures.  Don't fear failure, learn from it.

Mental Absenteeism

This can take many forms, but perhaps the most surprising to me is that of the Internet Surf King, or "ISK".   The ISK spends hours on end "researching" all manner of topics, news, and unrelated information.     Coming in at the crack of dawn (well, it would be if the sun rose at 9:30am), taking a short power lunch from 11 until 2-ish, then lingering until just after the boss leaves  for the day seems to be a common theme.

If you've fallen victim to this pattern, or one like it, find a way to change:   avoid whatever it is that takes your focus off your work, change your working hours and habits, or simply find a new job that is more interesting and/or rewarding.   You'll find that time passes much more quickly and that you feel a lot better about your day.

Arrogance

This one is a tough one.   One individual who worked for me told me that his job was beneath him and not very interesting.   While it may not have been interesting, it struck me as pretty arrogant given that he wasn't particularly effective and didn't really stand out among his peers.

The best solution here might simply be to move onto another position - while doing so won't help the individual directly, it will probably remove a burden from the rest of the team and allow the business to find someone who is happy to be there to do the job.

There are lots of articles about how organizations should attempt to engage their employees, and while there is certainly some good information provided therein, it's not entirely up to one's boss or manager to ensure that they are engaged - some of that responsibility must be borne out by the staff as well.     The next time you get on that coaster and get to the start of the long climb, try engaging the challenge to the level of your capability and ignore any temptation to just slide back.   The thrills you'll receive from the subsequent ride will likely make the effort worth it.

I was always afraid of screaming while riding on a roller coaster.    It's not that I didn't think it was appropriate, but rather I couldn't get the picture of me (with my mouth wide open) and an unfortunate winged insect both being in the wrong place at the wrong time out of my mind.