Are there limits to engagement?

The Inflexions – Civils et militaires : pouvoir dire review edited by the French Army published early 2021 an issue entirely dedicated to engagement, which you can purchase online here or in paper version there.

I had the honor to contribute, through an angle that I had not touched on much until now: the possible excess of engagement. Demonstrating engagement, being engaged for a cause... Engaging others, mobilizing people for a certain goal... how far should we go? Can we talk about over-engagement? Are there limits that should not be crossed, to protect oneself and others?

I recalled the burnout experienced by several of my former colleagues, fellow companions in corporate activism, some of the most engaged people I have encountered in my career. I went back to them and interviewed them. They all agree on one point: there is no such thing as "too much engagement", that would lead to burnout; it is not a matter of adjusting the degree of engagement as one would adjust the thermostat. However, it is important to think about the difference between practices that promote healthy engagement and those that trigger toxic engagement.

Healthy engagement resists instrumentalization of persons, despite efficiency imperatives: engaged people are genuinely "seen" by their peers and their hierarchy, respected in their diversity and in their free will. Healthy engagement rises in environments that favor cohesion, offer tangible support, focus energy towards the same direction (through buy-in, not coercion), over time and in action. Engagement calls for reciprocal and protective leadership – leadership understood not as a title or a function but as a dynamic partnership process.

At a time when civic and professional engagement seem to be a response to many contemporary challenges, this issue raises the urgent and vital question of our practices of command and leadership.

The full article and all the testimonials can be found here.