Simon Sinek is an author and lecturer . . . he\u2019s a favorite of ours and we refer to him often.\u00a0 He is a self-described idealist who \u201cimagines a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired to go to work and return home at the end of the day fulfilled by the work that they do.\u201d\u00a0 He goes on to say, \u201cI believe this thing called \u2018fulfillment\u2019. . . the ability to say that I love my work, that I love what I do . . . \u00a0is a basic human right, not a privilege.\u201d\u00a0 Pretty radical stuff, huh?\u00a0 We\u2019re supposed to make sure our people enjoy and are fulfilled by their work?\u00a0 The cynics among us would say, \u201cSeriously?\u00a0 Ya know, Sy, there\u2019s a reason they call it \u2018work\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Besides, why should we care if people are \u201cinspired\u201d by their work?\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0\u00a0 People who are engaged in their work and in their company\u2019s goals outperform their counterparts who are just putting in their time and collecting a paycheck.\u00a0 For more on this, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive up trying to grow the bottom line.\u00a0 Grow your people and your people will grow the bottom line.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ~ Jim Sandstrom<\/em><\/p>\n Most CEOs and company owners, when asked about the importance of their people, will say that their people are of paramount importance.\u00a0 Yet, when asked to put their priorities in rank order, these same company leaders will often talk about growth, delivering shareholder value, taking care of customers, and then somewhere further down the list, they\u2019ll talk about employees.\u00a0 Apparently, they have a different definition of \u201cparamount\u201d than we do.\u00a0 And it\u2019s strange, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 How do we expect to achieve growth, create shareholder value, and take care of customers if not through the efforts of our employees?<\/p>\n The great irony is that, CEOs who actually do put their employees first and engage them in a meaningful way, out perform companies who consider themselves \u201cperformance-based.\u201d\u00a0 Think about Southwest Airlines who unabashedly puts its employees ahead of customers, ahead of shareholders, and ahead of everything else.\u00a0 The theory, which Southwest has proved, is that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers, and happy customers will protect shareholder value.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another example of people-based companies vs. performance-based companies.\u00a0 General Electric, an icon of American industry, famously instituted a system that would eventually become known as \u201crank and yank.\u201d\u00a0 Under this system, employees would be ranked according to their contribution to shareholder value.\u00a0 Each year, the top 10% would be promoted, the bottom 10% fired.\u00a0 In effect, it was a system that encouraged employees to compete, not with other companies in their marketplace, but with one another.<\/p>\n In 2008, GE needed (and was awarded) a $139 billion taxpayer bailout.\u00a0 Yep, that\u2019s billion with a \u201cB.\u201d\u00a0 So much for pitting employees against one another as a way to drive performance.<\/p>\n Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of online retailer Zappos, based his growth strategy on extraordinary customer service.\u00a0 However, he recognized that he couldn\u2019t provide world-class customer service with a listless, apathetic workforce.\u00a0 So he invested heavily in hiring, training, and retaining the very best people he could find.\u00a0 As a result, he was able to achieve $1 billion in sales within his first 10 years in business. \u00a0Nurturing a people-centric business paid off handsomely for him.<\/p>\n None of this is to say that performance is unimportant.\u00a0 Obviously, performance is critically important to any business, but the priority must be on people first.\u00a0 To get the level of performance you want, you need to first put capable people in place, and then create an engaging culture that will allow them to flourish.<\/p>\n The Gallup organization has conducted a vast amount of research on Employee Engagement spanning several decades.\u00a0 It has defined an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce as one that has an emotional attachment to the company, actively supports the company\u2019s values and goals, and gives freely of its discretionary time and effort.\u00a0 Do you want a few clues as to whether or not your workforce is \u201cengaged?\u201d\u00a0 Here are two:<\/p>\n According to Gallup\u2019s research, the hallmarks of an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce are:<\/p>\n It seems to us that any one of those measures would be good reason to invest the time and energy to create an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce.\u00a0 But all of them combined?\u00a0 It\u2019s a real no-brainer.<\/p>\n Simon Sinek says he\u2019s an idealist for believing fulfillment\/engagement in our work is a basic human right.\u00a0 Still, what\u2019s wrong with a little idealism?\u00a0 We may never achieve \u201cthe vast majority of people\u201d being fulfilled by their work, but if we strive for that ideal, what we do achieve would be game-changing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Simon Sinek is an author and lecturer . . . he\u2019s a favorite of ours and we refer to him often.\u00a0 He is a self-described idealist who \u201cimagines a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired to go to work and return home at the end of the<\/p>\n\n
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