Cogs in a machine...

An earlier blog post discussed the erroneous thought that people need to be heard. “Being heard” is necessary but not sufficient. People need to feel heard. And even that is likely necessary but not sufficient. Work Human’s research found that 30% of workers have felt invisible at work, and 27% have felt flat-out ignored. While feeling heard increases engagement, feeling seen does even more so.

Work is tough and the Gallup Worldwide Engagement Index fell for only the second time in the past 12 years. The numbers are sobering. In 2024, 21% were actively engaged, 62% were unengaged and 17% were actively disengaged. Patrick Lencioni famously said that if you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.

Patrick Lencioni famously said that if you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.

Using his metaphor, our engagement index suggests that the typical organization of 100 people today would have only 21 people rowing in the same direction, 62 people would not have oars, while seventeen people row in the opposite direction!

the typical organization of 100 people today would have only 21 people rowing in the same direction, 62 people would not have oars, while seventeen people row in the opposite direction!

How likely is that boat to achieve its destination? (It is shocking to me that individual countries with 32% active engagement are considered rock stars).

Why such lack of engagement?

As leaders, we spend a lot of time on problems, metrics, goals, and performance. It’s always task over team. With that focus it is easy to see our team members as roles, resources, cogs—even obstacles(!), rather than as people. The World Health Organization now classifies burnout as a workplace hazard. A key driver? Feeling like you’re just a tool for someone else’s purpose—a cog in the machine.

Gallup has studied employee engagement for decades. In their research, they found that one of the top indicators of an engaged employee is whether someone at work seems to care about them as a person. Not just their output. Not just their metrics. Them. Understanding this led me to this core truth: If you treat people as a means to an end, you will never have their trust or respect. And you will never achieve team.

If you treat people as a means to an end, you will never have their trust or respect. And you will never achieve team.

If your people feel like cogs, eventually they’ll grind to a halt. But seeing them as real people, with lives, families, ambitions, fears, and untapped brilliance builds trust and trust builds team.

Like Billy Joel told us, it’s always been a matter of trust.  A worker is twelve times more likely to be actively engaged if she trusts her team leader. And engaged employees are 21% more productive, and their organizations see nearly 60% less turnover. Why? Because people stay where they feel seen, heard, and valued. High-trust environments are high-stay environments.

McKinsey research during the pandemic found that teams led by empathetic, human-centered leaders bounced back faster, performed better, and built deeper loyalty. When leaders said, “Tell me how you're really doing,” it changed the game.

When you lead with humanity—when you remember that every spreadsheet has a soul behind it, every Zoom square has a story—you unlock not just performance, but potential.

Perhaps the research of Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall said it best: What we, as team members, want from you, our team leader, is firstly that you make us feel part of something bigger, that you show us how what we are doing together is important and meaningful and secondly, that you make us feel that you can see us, and connect to us, and care about us, and challenge us, in a way that recognizes who we are as individuals. We ask you to give us this sense of universality—all of us together—and at the same time to recognize our own uniqueness; to magnify what we all share, and to lift up what is special about each of us.

What we, as team members, want from you, our team leader, is firstly that you make us feel part of something bigger, that you show us how what we are doing together is important and meaningful and secondly, that you make us feel that you can see us, and connect to us, and care about us, and challenge us, in a way that recognizes who we are as individuals. We ask you to give us this sense of universality—all of us together—and at the same time to recognize our own uniqueness; to magnify what we all share, and to lift up what is special about each of us.

I leave you with this question:

Who on your team needs to be reminded today that they are more than their job?