Ignite Fulfillment: The Human Element
Workforce engagement is a hot topic these days. The Great Resignation has impacted business in every industry. It is hard to find talent, and it is hard to keep talent. At the center of all of this - people! People want to feel fulfilled at the end of the workday. They want to go home and feel like they've had an impact on the world in a positive way. Our Ignite Fulfillment Series is a Guide to Workforce Engagement and is meant for Business Leaders and Business Owners. This guide will help you focus on the elements that are required to have an engaged, fulfilled team!
The Fulfillment Elements:
1. Have a strong, healthy culture and ensure each team member lives in it every day!
2. Put everything in place so your team can be ACING their roles!
3. Appreciate them, authentically, every day!
4. Know your team is human and treat them as such.
We've covered culture and understand their roles in the first two segments. Now it is time to cover the HUMAN element: Appreciation and human kindness. I am not sure why this part is forgotten. It could be because we have spent decades focused on the bottom line, or the earnings report. So much so that we forgot that humans make those results happen.
Appreciation can make a bad day great. It can also change momentum. Appreciation can make such a difference in the least expensive ways possible. Yet, it is neglected. Focus is typically on the negative not the positive.
"Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for." Zig Ziglar
Without appreciation, you create a negative environment.
The way you give appreciation, may not be the way it is received or welcomed. As a leader, you need to understand how your team likes to receive gratitude and appreciation. Once you understand how each team member would like to receive it, you then have to align how you give it. Most leaders aren't cheerleaders. They are "get stuff done’rs." That is often heard as "They get a paycheck, what more could they want." They want to know they did a good job. That the work they do is noticed and respected.
A Thank You can go a long way!
We ask our teams to thank those team members they recognize in our sessions with a thank-you note. The feedback from those notes is just amazing.
This brings us to the fourth element of fulfillment: Know your team is human.
The Human Element is all-encompassing
The human element comes down to basics. Humans want to be respected, cared for, helped, and liked. Treat your team as such. Know they have lives outside of their 9-5.
Work/Life Integration is always something you should be yearning for. Bridge the gap as much as you can. Allow them to have the best of both. I don't mean allow them to flit about and not get stuff done. I mean, set goals and objectives and make sure those are done. But micromanagement isn't necessary. If you've covered culture, ACING and appreciation, the act of getting stuff done will just happen. You won't have to fight them.
Treat everyone with the same respect. We all have the same desires, not to repeat but: to be cared for, respected, helped and liked. We all want our families to be taken care of. We all want to live an ideal life. That doesn't change based on where those people work in the business. Share information, bring people together, ensure everyone is treated fair and respectfully.
Compensate fairly and give incentives for all.
Every role in the business is imperative to its success. Sales starts the transaction. Operations work the transaction. Finance closes it. You can't be successful without any piece of the business. Make sure you aren't compensating more in one area than another.
Incentives should be company-wide. Everyone can play a part in increasing profit and closing deals. Reputation is not built in one area alone.
There is so much more to unpack here. I know I've not covered it all. But hopefully, you've started to think about how you can make improvements.
Conclusion
Your team is human. They want to know they are doing good in the world. They want to go home at night, sit on the couch with their family, and feel like they made a difference. They want to know they are appreciated. You, the leader, need to evaluate where you are in each of the areas covered in this series. Make changes to help your team ignite fulfillment. Once ignited, your goals become attainable again.
If you need help or want to discuss anything around these topics, go to www.heightenedleaders.com to start a conversation.