America’s workplace has taken us on quite a run over the past two decades. Riding the dot-com boom that fueled the “war for talent” during the 1990s, the bubble suddenly burst in 2000, slipping us into a recession. By 2003, job growth, income, and employee optimism were soaring again, this time powered by subprime mortgages and suspect lending practices that, as you know, all came crashing down, starting at the end of 2007, sending the US economy into an extended funk. For too many Americans, employment opportunities dried up, wages stagnated, businesses closed, and growth largely came to a halt.

Thankfully, the long road to recovery began in 2014 and was paved with the longest stretch of continuous job growth in our history. In 2018, the American economy continued to grow and expand resulting in record low unemployment rates. The National Total Unemployment rate was 4.1%, a full point below the 5.1% rate which the US Federal Reserve considers “full employment.” The unemployment rate for those with college degrees is almost half the total unemployment rate at 2.1%. For employees, if you want to work you have choices. For employers, if you want workers you have to be able to engage them in order to get them to stay!

Studying the American workforce throughout this roller coaster of a ride, we took a deep dive, looking for those things that keep people going at work in good times and bad. What we discovered motivated us to write this book, propelled by our desire to share what we learned.

What inspires people and fuels a commitment to their employers, their roles, and their leaders? How do “best-in-class” organizations retain great people while competition is fierce in areas like technology, healthcare, engineering, and even skilled trades? Are employers adapting quickly enough to keep millennials—the largest generation in the workforce—committed and inspired in their jobs? What impact do leaders, at all levels, have in building trust and strong relationships with their team members? Do leaders really understand the impact they have on their team members’ engagement and decisions to stay or leave? This book explores these questions and many, many more, offering a series of practical strategies and tactics you can put to work within your organization and with your team.

We have the privilege of working with and learning from many of the world’s most successful organizations representing nearly every industry. Our hope is that, through this book, you, too, will learn new ways to strengthen your culture and raise the collective energy and performance of everyone with whom you work.