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Why are so many workers burning out, checking out, or leaving altogether? At the heart of the matter is an apparent mass disengagement. People, and especially younger people, are disengaged, disinterested, or disaffected.

For my part, I have been disappointed in much of the expert advice I have read about how to address the issue.

Take Gallup of the famous Gallup polls, widely recognized as experts on the matter. They suggest selecting the right managers, holding managers accountable for employee engagement, promoting engagement strategically and operationally, and (shock!) using the right engagement survey.  In another post, they suggest the key to engagement lies in providing opportunities for advancement, offering a sense of purpose, quality management, and better incentives.

Purpose, opportunities, and incentives that fit are important, but if you want to engage your employees (or your peers, or your boss for that matter!), you need ways to engage at a more basic, micro-level. 

Our recent research suggests that beyond incentives, a key contributor to engagement can be found in effectively validating your employee’s feelings. In our study, which is a small chunk of a larger project with over 1000 participants, workers who reported feeling like their feelings were taken seriously were significantly more likely to identify with their company’s goals and reported being more engaged.

This is an important result, because it suggests that just through the use of effective emotion validation strategies (see the link for how to do it), you can keep your people more engaged on a daily basis. So before you start firing people or throw up your hands in despair at the disaffected youth, give these strategies a shot.

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