The vast majority of people begin a new job filled with enthusiasm, excited anticipation, and a strong desire to do a good job and ‘go the extra mile.’ Before too long, many of those same people will lose their enthusiasm when confronted time and again with reality. They become disillusioned and decide to quit in one of two different ways. They may actually quit and take their talents elsewhere or figuratively quit and do just enough to get by. Our workplaces are filled with the latter. For great illustrations of these disengaged souls and examples of how they got that way, just read the Dilbert comic strip.

A new study by Towers Perrin found that 38 percent of employees surveyed from around the world are partly to fully disengaged. That number strikes me as appalling. Disengagement is like an infectious, communicable disease that is difficult to cure once it has spread widely, but it is completely preventable in most cases. The vaccine to prevent disengagement is made up of inspirational, communicative, visible, and honest leaders who strive to be their personal best and are genuinely interested in the well-being of their people.

So, what about the bottom line? Why should a company care if their employees are engaged or not? According to the Towers Perrin study, the level of employee engagement and financial performance are strongly correlated. The firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees increased operating income by 19 percent and earnings per share 28 percent year to year. I think those are two very convincing reasons to care about employee engagement levels.

This Towers Perrin study also points out the strong influence that a company’s senior leaders have upon employee engagement levels. If you are a leader in your organization, take some time to reflect upon the impact your behavior is having on your employees’ level of engagement. The first step in becoming a more effective leader is to take a good, long look in the mirror. Start with a 360-degree leadership assessment to find out where you are hitting the mark and where you might be able to improve. Next, review the results of the assessment, pick an area for improvement, create a plan, and ‘work the plan.’ A word of advice: the likelihood of you making any positive change will increase significantly if you work with a coach.