Learning employee engagement lessons driving in India.

View from the road driving through Agra.

Normally I don’t like the word drivers paired with employee engagement because it implies that we can drive engagement rather than invite engagement. But I have been thinking about the lessons from watching drivers in India navigage their way.

I have only been in India for 3 days and just in Delhi and Agra. We still have Udaipur, Mumbai, Pune, and Goa to visit. What has stood out for me is driving through the streets and roads of India. I want to be cautious of generalizations but I have learned a few lessons about employee engagement as I watch the movement of traffic. As you read these statements, think about how they apply to work.

Employee engagement 7 drivers:

• Be assertive not aggressive in declaring where you want to go.
• There is more room on the road for people than we sometimes think.
• Keep a watchful eye for everyone around you.
• Create new lanes where it makes more sense to have 5 lanes than 3.
• Use your horn to alert others and let them know where you are.
• Don’t just look ahead, look beside you and look behind you.
• You probably have more space than you think so keep moving ahead.

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert spending 3 weeks in India and working at learning new lessons in employee engagement.