42 Rules of Employee Engagement

One of the best things about 42 Rules of Employee Engagement by Susan Stamm is that because it’s 42 separate rules – so you can consume the material a few pages at a time. The book for me was a sort of flash cards, a collection of bits and pieces that I’d learned elsewhere that I was in some state of forgetfulness about. Although my interest wasn’t in engaging the employees I manage – I still found some nuggets of useful information about how to engage employees – and perhaps more importantly what breaks employee engagement.

The book ends with a list of references to other books that might be useful to the reader. In fact about 15% of the book are these references to other books and tools.

Here’s the list of rules covered in the book:

• Rule 1 Rules Are Meant to Be Broken
• Rule 2 Get “Under New Management”
• Rule 3 Begin at the very Beginning
• Rule 4 Listen, Listen, Listen
• Rule 5 Be a Hands-On Manager
• Rule 6 Be a Low-Tech Communicator
• Rule 7 Everyone Needs Feedback
• Rule 8 Keep Learning
• Rule 9 Allow Your Team to Grow
• Rule 10 Support Your Team Members When Needed
• Rule 11 Relationships Determine Results
• Rule 12 Sharing Builds Community
• Rule 13 Your Beliefs Drive Results
• Rule 14 You’re Still the Boss
• Rule 15 Everyone’s Not Like You (Thank Goodness!)
• Rule 16 Be Direct with People Who value Results
• Rule 17 Be Enthusiastic with People Who value Enthusiasm
• Rule 18 Be Accepting with People Who value Sincerity
• Rule 19 Be Reliable with People Who value Quality
• Rule 20 Build Self-Esteem When Discussing Performance
• Rule 21 Involve to Engage
• Rule 22 Use Your Head
• Rule 23 You Don’t Have to Be the Smartest Person in the Room
• Rule 24 Compete with Your Competitors
• Rule 25 Get Out of the Shower
• Rule 26 Turf is for Stadiums, Not Teams
• Rule 27 Right Actions Bring Engagement
• Rule 28 Leave Your “Good Parenting” Skills at Home
• Rule 29 Leave Your “Bad Parenting” Skills at Home
• Rule 30 Expect Exceeded Expectations
• Rule 31 It Only Takes a Minute
• Rule 32 Recognize Good Performances
• Rule 33 Problem Solving Is a Team Sport
• Rule 34 Help Your Team Accept Change
• Rule 35 He Who Has the Gold, Rules
• Rule 36 Build Acceptance, Reject Prejudices
• Rule 37 Honesty Is Always the Best Policy
• Rule 38 Give It Your All
• Rule 39 Know What You Want
• Rule 40 Engaged Teams Get the Facts
• Rule 41 Ask, Don’t Tell
• Rule 42 These Are My Rules, What Are Yours?