Everybody knows they should be happy at work. But does everyone know how empowering and fulfilling engagement is? Engagement is different from happiness. Being fully engaged means you are motivated to give the extra effort that advances the goals of your employer. Your job might be tough, and it might be stressful, but when you are fully engaged you want to do it; you want to go the extra mile. Does this seem unrealistic, or like something you can only find when you have your dream job? As an employee of your company, leader of your team, and vital member of your family and circle of friends, you have a moral obligation to get to full engagement, and to fully engage those you lead.

The onus of engagement is usually put solely on the employer or the employee. We say an employee who does everything right will still be disengaged if he is working for a bad manager. Likewise, the best managers can’t engage a person who is working in the wrong job or the wrong industry. We must come together, as managers and individuals, to understand the important of being fully engaged at work and to do what is necessary to foster and maintain it. In the We perspective, employer and employees are equal partners in the drive to full engagement.

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This post is an excerpt from the new book, We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement, by Kevin Kruse and Rudy Karsan.

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Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. Get more success and tips from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com and check out keynote video clips. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers how to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams.