The Art and Science of Thriving
Welcome to The Art and Science of Thriving, the podcast where high-achieving professionals unlock the secrets to living a fulfilling, balanced, and high-performing life.
Through evidence-based insights in neuroscience, psychology, and high-performance strategies, we’ll explore how to achieve success without burnout, create clarity and purpose, and thrive in every area of your life.
Michael Schiel, a high performance coach and transformation consultant, hosts the podcast. Michael helps overwhelmed people and teams find their purpose, achieve their goals, and reach peak performance while creating well-being, balance and fulfillment in their lives
The Art and Science of Thriving
Episode #96: How Do I Get My Employees Engaged In Their Work?
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How do you actually get people to care about their work?
Not just show up—but bring energy, focus, ownership, and commitment every day.
In this episode, I break down what employee engagement really is—and more importantly, how leaders actually create it in real-world environments.
In this episode, I walk you through:
- A clear, evidence-based definition of employee engagement (and what it really looks like in practice)
- The measurable impact of engagement on performance, well-being, retention, quality, and client outcomes
- The 7 core drivers of engagement: meaning, safety, clarity, autonomy, support, growth, and connection
- Why managers—not just senior leaders—are the most critical factor in shaping engagement
- How engagement is built (or broken) through everyday leadership behaviors and interactions
And most importantly, I give you 3 practical, high-impact actions you can apply immediately to improve engagement on your team:
- How to create clarity and focus every single week
- How to turn your 1:1s into powerful engagement conversations
- How to respond in key moments (mistakes, input, challenges) to build trust and ownership
If you lead people—or want to create a team that is focused, committed, and performing at a high level—this episode gives you a clear, evidence-based model you can start applying right away.
Free Livecast on Employee Engagement and How to Build It
If this topic is really important to you, you should come to my free livecast on Wednesday April 15th, 2026, where I go over the model, ways to tell whether you need to apply this, and introduce some ways to do so.
Click here to find out more or to register for free
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