Employees inherently want to contribute to something greater than themselves; they truly want to see how they can be a part of achieving the company’s business initiatives.
Often, we share all the things that we, as business owners or leaders, care about when reporting on company goals or tactics.
We see employee’s eyes glaze over and tell ourselves that they don’t really care that much about the business strategy.
The issue is not that they don’t care, it is that they don’t see the connection or the “What’s In It for Me” (WIIFM).
Start your people strategy with the question “what are our top 3-5 business goals for the next 2-3 years?” and then have an honest discussion about:
✔️Why these goals matter.
✔️What impact will success make?
✔️Why should employees care?
✔️How do these goals pursue your mission?
✔️What is inspiring about these goals?
✔️What would happen to the achievement of these goals if certain employee groups were not present or contributing?
✔️What are the unique needs of certain employee groups/job roles that should be met to accelerate their focus or energy towards these goals?
✔️What is different about the workforce today that needs to be supported or encouraged that hasn’t existed before?
People strategies include employee engagement, diversity, equity, inclusion, feedback cultures, and enabling growth.
These are all wonderful benefits for employees, but these initiatives cannot be a ‘should’ or ‘just because’ – they should support a direct focus for your business.
If you want to increase employee engagement, ask the questions: why, for what purpose, how will it help, what would the employees be able to do if they were more engaged, who could they help more?
People will recognize your authenticity when you say why something is worth their time and effort – this builds trust and loyalty.
We all build walls or create distance between ourselves and those that we are hesitant to trust.
When you think of this subconscious behavior between every employee and multiple others, it can become almost crippling to innovation, synergy, collaboration, and risk-taking.
🤝 When trust grows within a team and between the leader and the team, more of each person – their ideas, creativity, perspectives, and insights – show up.
This change – seeing and experiencing more vulnerability and diversity of opinion and insight – is what people long for in their work environment and will accelerate goals ⤴ simply because the walls are removed and fewer obstacles are in the way
