Daily Satisfaction is the number one driver of workforce engagement.  In other words, employees need to feel positively about what they do on a daily basis, or they won’t want to do it for very long.  However there are some other issues that affect Daily Satisfaction;  Employees need to feel they have a positive relationship with their supervisor or manager (Employees quit a boss and not a company) and perhaps most important, there needs to be a good fit between the skills/interests of the employee and the job.

I have mentioned in the past few weeks that I was being recruited for an interesting job…  Heading up the international employee satisfaction practice of a top market research company.  I told the recruiter that I was working with that I liked my current role as Chief Instigator of Employee Hold’em.  I love assisting companies to better understand the needs and expectations of their employees, helping them make changes that improve employee engagement, retention, and ultimately customer satisfaction and business success.

And don’t get me started on how much I enjoy being able to write books on workforce engagement, and speak in front of thousands of professionals every year.  I like the bully pulpit.

However, I also am smart enough to realize that no-one should discount opportunities out of hand, without giving them a fair chance.  So when the president of the market research company offered to fly me to their international headquarters, I said “yes”.  No harm no foul.

However as I indicated before, what was critical to me was the commitment of the organization to put effort behind the marketing and sales of this product.  In other words, I didn’t want to be responsible for a “me-too” product, something that was sold by the organization because they felt they needed to have it to round out their other product offerings.  Remember, I’ve been there, done that.  Twice.

To make a long story short (unless you want to hear the fun we had when we had to fly back to the airport because the cabin wasn’t pressurizing) both the president of the company and I felt that in this case, there wasn’t a good fit between my skills and abilities and the job.  Some folks that I talked with were surprised I didn’t send a resume, and even more surprised that my time there was less of a job interview and more of a “getting acquainted” session.

As I said in earlier blogs, it’s nice to know that the worst that could happen is exactly what happened.  I got some frequent flier miles.  I had a great lunch (ostrich burger, go figure!). I met some really nice, smart people that I might connect with in the future. 

And most importantly, I re-affirmed to myself that the path I have taken is the right one for me at this time.  That’s worth a whole day flying anytime.