As I sit at my office at Wright State University I realize, quite viscerally, what engagement really means.  It means a perfect connection.  It means looking at yourself in some invisible mirror and saying: “I was born to do this.”

I have always wanted to be a college professor.  If you ask me why I will hesitate - I may read you a list of characteristics of the job that I like, or say that I love the college environment, or explain that I love studying.  All those things are true - but that’s not it.  I like being a college professor because I am intrinsically and deeply connected to college teaching. I like being a college professor because this is who I am.  

In a recent presentation I said that I didn’t care about increases in bottom line or productivity that came from engagement - and of course I could hear an audible gasp from the audience.  She doesn’t care about what? Did she really say that?

Here is why I don’t care.  I don’t care because those who are truly engaged don’t worry about being productive. The truly engaged are productive because there’s no other way to be.  

You see, engagement goes far beyond “working hard” or “being a good employee” even though engaged employees are likely to, indeed, do a good job.  Instead, engagement is about reaching that perfect blend between professional and personal, between work and life, between what we do for a living and who we are. Everything else… the hard work, the better productivity, the excitement - everything else comes from allowing our natural energy to flow. Undisturbed. Unguided. Perfectly connected to who we are.