Soft Leadership and Engaged Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to explore soft leadership to engage employees effectively. It explains engaged leadership and connects with soft leadership. It offers innovative tools and techniques to ensure employee engagement. It outlines the reasons for employee disengagement and enlightens the advantages of employee engagement for both employees and organizations. It unfolds several research findings on employee engagement and illustrates with the examples of global companies including Cummins, DHL Express, Southwest Airlines, Google, and Virgin. It calls for active involvement of senior leaders and CEOs to ensure employee engagement effectively. It advises CEOs to evolve as chief engagement officers. It implores both employers and employees to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness. It emphasizes the philosophy of “employee first, customer second, and shareholder third.” It concludes that employee engagement is a two-way street.