Steve Schad offers advice to take charge of your career for members of Marketers’ Community.
“That was random.” It’s a well-deserved retort from my 12-year-old and 15-year-old daughters in response to my frequent offbeat statements or questions. It always gets a chuckle from me.
If they were to look at my resume, they might hit me with the same, deadpan statement. I’d probably still laugh, but had things not turned out so well for me, it might not be so funny.
For many people, career paths can look a little… random. Even if the path was intentional and well-planned, stumbling into a job that is unfulfilling can be painful. No one takes a job because they know it will make them miserable, so what gives?
Engagement Crisis
You’ve heard the statistics. According to Gallup, 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. Ajilon states that 80% of the full-time workforce are either actively seeking (25.7%) or passively open to (55.5%) new job opportunities. The list goes on.
There’s an entire industry built around helping companies solve the engagement crisis, and after more than a decade and many billions of dollars spent, little has changed. The numbers are shockingly similar to what they were in the mid-2000s.
Engagement Comes from Within
Few of the solutions on the market address the role of the individual in creating their own engagement. Most assume employees are passive receivers of engagement-stoking perks, praise, and pizza who will predictably “turn on” when the right management levers are pulled.
The question is: how does an individual find his or her own engagement? For me and the team at ReVrb, the answer lies in empowerment. And, there is research to back that up.
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