t is not often that one gets to credit her childhood problems for some of her adult achievements, but I do, and I do it often.

I was frequently in trouble as a child — no surprise to those who know me. When I was younger, most of my misdeeds centered around selfishness, but as I became a teenager, my wrongdoings evolved around my lack of appreciation or respect for others. I also had an incredible lack of understanding about how I fit into the bigger picture.

My mother, thankfully, was consistently assertive. She would find numerous ways to show or tell me how I was failing or struggling with positively engaging in my roles, whether it be as a member of my family, my community or my school. She helped me realize that each community of which I was a member had a slightly different definition of positive engagement, and subsequently would have different expectations regarding my reasonable contributions. Mom regularly reminded me I wasn’t living up to those expectations, and I was not engaging in a positive manner.

Her words stuck! I’ve been a supervisor or manager for more than 20 years, but the lessons learned from my mother years ago help enable both my personal engagement with my work and my team’s engagement today.

All sorts of organizations and business leaders around the globe have defined the word, and each one is as different as the organization itself. I define engagement as the level of “give a damn” about the work, the team and the organization – but that’s just me!

So important is the level of engagement to the ultimate sustainability and bottom line of an organization that Gallup and Quantum Workplace have spent years measuring it on our behalf. Gallup’s latest report claims that while the percentage didn’t decrease in 2018, only 34% of employees are actively engaged. In addition, Gallup suggests that companies with highly engaged employees outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share. Dan Harris, lead researcher from Quantum Workplace, suggests that “continuous listening and conversation strategies” are among what he considers the top three trends affecting businesses today. Further, he adds that, “more frequent, fluid and seamless activities affecting how the work is done” will be needed to encourage and sustain positive engagement. Gallup and Quantum Workplace both suggest that, as in years past, employee engagement remains a top concern of business leaders.

All of this suggests that if we, as individual managers and supervisors, aren’t actively attempting to better engage our workforce, we should be. Certainly, there are a multitude of resources at the ready, as a multi-million dollar industry has been created to address employee engagement. But before you invest in all of those books and tools, may I suggest you learn from others? Fortune’s annual list of the “Best Companies to Work For” serves as a good first step, as it has been polling great employers for years. Salesforce, a global software company, holds Fortune’s top spot in 2018 and has been in the top 10 for years. Wegmans Food Markets, Edward Jones and Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants consistently rank in the top spots. All of these companies have multiple things in common, such as empowerment, authenticity and open communication, all of which are tightly aligned with engagement.

I believe we’ve made engagement too complicated, and I believe if we commit to untangling it, the levels of engagement will increase. Below are the basic steps I use when I’m working with business leaders and teams to address a lack of employee engagement:

Step 1 (individual work). Define the word from your perspective. I find it helpful if it somehow incorporates performance (productivity and quality) and satisfaction.

Step 2 (team work). Working together, define the word from the team’s perspective. It’s important that the team reach a decent level of acceptance of the group definition.

From here on out, this will be the definition you’ll use. Write it down, put it on the website, on the walls, on social media, or wherever you’re likely to see it.

Step 3. Working together, and perhaps including some other key stakeholders, identify the behaviors associated with positive engagement. Have a thoughtful discussion about what is likely to have caused these behaviors. Then discuss what has been celebrated, and perhaps what needs to be celebrated.

Step 4. Still working together, identify the behaviors associated with negative engagement. Discuss what has been tolerated, what has gone unchecked, etc.

Step 5. Brainstorm ways to monitor or measure the behaviors discussed in steps 3 and 4. How might they be measured? How often should they be measured?

Step 6. Discuss how feedback regarding these behaviors may be offered.

Step 7. Given everything learned and discussed in the above steps, identify leadership actions, activities and behaviors that need to be immediately addressed to prove to the team that positive engagement is a priority.

This is an important step. I have found that if the team doesn’t believe leadership is committed to being engaged, it’s highly unlikely they will commit to it.

As a gentle reminder, I wouldn’t overcomplicate this. The above steps lend themselves to light or easy conversation. The process needs to be inviting and purposeful, not formal, forced or awkward.

Accept that mistakes happen and that, provided learning ensues, all will be well. In addition, grant some risk-taking when it’s likely to enable confidence, pride or innovation.

This can be as simple as nodding your head with a smile or as formal as announcing your appreciation at the next all-staff meeting.

This may be associated with your organization’s mission and goals, but it could also mean ensuring the work is relevant and/or has meaning for both the organization and the employee.

This could be encouraging someone to step outside of their comfort zone, or it could be reinforcing a reasonable expectation or standard that employees may not realize is within their reach.

Truly, thoughtfully listen to your team’s ideas or concerns. Put down your phone, turn away from your monitor or schedule the time to pro-actively tune in.

It’s likely you’ll have some employees who don’t offer their thoughts — either because they’re bashful, they’re under confident or perhaps because the last time they did it, they quickly regretted it. Therefore, be a regular and appreciative inquisitor.

Long gone are the days of organizational poker. You need to be reasonably transparent and openly demonstrate you are willing to engage in discussion, problem solving and idea sharing.

I don’t expect you to love your employees. Lord knows I haven’t loved all of mine. But I do expect you to care about them and, more importantly, to show it.

The above model spells GRAPHIC but with an extra C. Throughout the years, this acronym has helped remind me about my role and responsibilities as a leader. I keep it handy because I give a damn.