What does being engaged in a committed relationship mean to you? To me, it means that I’m committed, that I share a vision with my partner(s) for the future, I care about our success together and am willing to work as a team to accomplish that success, and most importantly, I am happy.

I must admit that several of my past “engagements” didn’t pan out. Why? It was for the same reasons that many employers and employees are not engaged in their jobs; boredom, non-communication, lack of closeness, a full understanding of what damage is being done by giving up, not caring (apathy and ambivalence) and unhappiness.

Your relationship with your employer or employee is critical to your overall success. Let’s take a look at some of these points and see how we can help establish good habits that will make our engagement in the business more fulfilling, and as studies indicate, more profitable.

Boredom

Are you bored? Just as children blame adults for their “boredom,” we often blame our boredom on someone else. Boredom is a result of doing something repeatedly without feeling that the effort is effective or important. We are in control of our own actions, so if we are bored, then it’s our own fault, and may need to ask questions or do things differently. Now, during this changing economy is a perfect time to take action. You’re going to get bored if you’re sitting around waiting for the economy to recover. You’re also going to be surprised that when it does recover, it won’t be the same, so let’s all get our teams together and explore the importance and effectiveness of the jobs we now have and how we can mix it up a bit!

Communication

Do you communicate? As an employer, do you share the company’s visions, goals, and struggles? Do your employees have the opportunity to participate in finding solutions that will help reach goals and solve issues? Do you have meetings to engage employees in the business? As an employee, are you communicating solutions and ideas to your manager for making the business more exciting, profitable and fun?

Lack of Closeness

Closeness can be exhibited both physically (contact) and mentally (thoughts). Both are important. We need to be seen and heard and the best way to do this is by setting aside uninterrupted time to explore ideas and hear issues. When is the last time you had a conversation with your employee without distractions, 100% focused on the conversation? Have you thanked those engaged employees for their hard work and ideas? Do your employees see you often or are you working behind closed doors? As an employee, when was the last time you were not only present physically but also mentally, be it with colleagues or customers?

“There isn’t much that I can do, but I can share an hour with you, and I can share a joke with you....as on our way we go.” — Maude V. Preston

Caring

Caring is critical to engagement. If you’re apathetic or ambivalent about the relationship, whether personal or professional, or you take it for granted, how can you invest the time you need to be close and communicate? Lack of caring usually means you have stopped believing in the relationship. It may be time to stop and revisit why as an employer you have stopped caring about your employees, or as an employee, why you have become ambivalent or apathetic about your employer or the company.

Happiness

If you don’t think being happy is a major part of one’s success, then you must have been raised under the adage, “Happiness has nothing to do with it, character is all that matters and adversity builds character.”

I never really believed this, and thankfully, Tony Hsieh of Zappos Shoes is proving the theory wrong. If you haven’t read about this, then I highly recommend you research how he built a $1.2 billion online retail business with the simple premise that people should be happy. It seems that happiness is a direct result of feeling empowered, respected and given the ability to make decisions.

Engagement is critical to success whether as an owner, manager or an employee. We want to be committed, share the vision, work hard and help each other be successful and be happy!

I’m happy, are you?