The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

The Engagement Power of the Boss

Increasingly the rhinoceros and its handlers are an anachronism. But the important question remains: How do you create that overall work experience that supports high levels of engagement? The answer lies in aligning a number of key influencers from management behavior to what gets inspected and rewarded in an organization.

The one word that sums up the need most directly is leadership—not just leadership from the top but leadership at all levels of the organization, and particularly leadership at the level closest to the employee. Undeniably one of the most critical influencers of employee behavior is the behavior of the boss. Boss is an unfortunate word because it conjures up all of those negative images of ...