Do You Have Skin In The Game?

Just this past week I attended a soccer game at the high school my daughter will be attending this fall.  She hopes to be playing for the team this time next Spring.  Which is really the reason we went to the game in the first place. We wanted to see how they used their goalie, the communication they had on the field, their passing abilities, etc.  But overall, we wanted them to win.

What I didn't go there to do was learn something about myself that I guess I really always knew, but didn't acknowledge.  Something that impacts all of us every day in the workplace, at home, anywhere really.  The lesson I realized or learned is that if I don't have skin in the game, I am not engaged.  While I sat there watching this game I noticed I was not very engaged.  I cheered when they scored (which they did 10 times) and when a shot was blocked.  But I never got into the game the way I do when one of my girls is on the field.

I have been known as "that mom" once or twice in my past because of my enthusiasm for the game and my girls.  But I never even came close to that level of engagement at this game.  It was then, that I realized I had no skin in the game and therefore was not engaged.  My girls weren't on the field so my purpose was gone.

Now take soccer out of the equation and think about this from a work perspective.  How many times have you not been engaged in what you were doing?  For some, it's how we live our lives at our jobs.  For others it may just be on a project, with a certain colleague or a manager.  But we all have felt it at one point or another.

After leaving the game, I sat and thought about this for some time.  I began asking myself questions around what I could have done to get myself to be more engaged.  The answer was easy.  Figure out a purpose that is meaningful to me that would drive me to be engaged.  This is my daughter's future team (hopefully).  The better they play the better chance of getting other good players to come their way.   Now, I have skin in the game.  I want my daughter to play for the best school.

The same can be said for our engagement at work.  Organizations, managers and employees all have equal responsibilities to find their purpose and have it guide them.  It is no longer enough to put the responsibility of engagement on just the managers or just the employees.  We all have to create and be held responsible to driving an engaged workforce.  The more skin we all have in the game, the better chance we are going to come out on top.  You may get lucky like I did last week (Southeast won 10-0).  But why risk your happiness and success on luck.  Go get in the game!