According to Jim Harter, a Gallup research scientist, engagement—or the lack of it—has substantial implications for how well business organizations achieve their goals. Quantitative evidence points toward the impact of employee engagement. The State of the American Workplace report shows that companies with a 9-to-1 ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees experience 147 percent higher earnings per share, on average, in comparison to their competitors.

A key link between leadership, motivation and coaching techniques, and engagement is that leaders need to use motivation and coaching techniques to help keep employees engaged. An example of the value of a coaching technique is that a survey of 1,000 employees revealed that leaders who give positive feedback to employees foster engagement. Furthermore, giving mostly negative feedback is better than no feedback or being ignored. A total of 5 percent of employees were engaged who believed that supervisors focused on their weaknesses (11 percent of employees fell into this category).