Don't Light the Fire, Stop Throwing Water

Many leaders believe they must always do something to improve employee engagement. They often have statements such as, "We must drive performance", or "We must light the fire within each employee", or "We must reward individual high performers to increase overall performance."

Very often leaders must STOP doing certain things instead of looking to do more. Leaders create the environment which influences performance. Very often with the best of intentions leaders create an environment that damages performance.
When you throw water on a fire it hisses, smolders, and eventually goes out. So it is with employee engagement and motivation. I believe people are self-motivated. That is why you hired them. They arrive with a "fire in the belly." De-motivating policies cause lethargic and de-motivated employees.
Policies that are consistent with bribes and threats send a message, "You are NOT self-motivated and I don't trust you to work hard and do the right things to improve performance" It is as if you are throwing water on a fire. Using threats and bribes to increase activity, improve sales, or improve customer service causes employee engagement to smolder and eventually go out. At a certain point people get lethargic and lose interest in the activities that are encouraged by the threats and bribes.
Stop trying to turn up the heat in the fire. There is no need to do it. Stop the bribes such as pay-for-performance and stop the threats such as the typical performance appraisal. If you just stop, these things will improve.
Then, if you replace these "fire extinguishing policies" with a laser like focus on improving the system you can reduce waste and increase customer appreciation. Everything will improve. Stop focusing on improving individual performance and start focusing on organizational performance.
Are you inadvertently throwing water on a fire with the best of intentions? Stop it!
First stop throwing water. The fire will reappear.