When I talk about the concept of YEO, You Engaging Others, the word "engaging" is used as a verb. This is not an accident.
Reading through the comment stream of my post last week, I occured to me that some were responding to the word "engaging" as an adjective. In it's adjective form, engaging means, "Interesting; charming; attractive, especially of a manner or behaviour." And while I think that's all well and good, that's not what I mean when I use the word "engaging."
I mean the verb:
- To gain over; to win and attach; to attract and hold; to draw.
- To gain for service; as, to engage friends to aid in a cause.
- To employ the attention and efforts of
- To embark in a business; to take a part; to employ or involve one's self; to devote attention and effort; to enlist;
For our purposes, whether or not you are "engaging" is judged by other peoples actions, not by yours. It is not judged by how charming you are, but by whether or not your followers take action on your behalf.
The path to engagement is through awareness and interaction.
Focusing on "engaging" as an adjective may get you to awareness and interaction, but only focusing on the the actions required to make it a verb will lead you to engagement, to someone taking action on your behalf.
One additional thought.
Often, engagement must look like this first. If you want others to engage on your behalf, engage on their behalf.
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