…get up go to work drive home get up go to work
drive home get up go to work drive home get up go
to work drive home get up go to work drive home…
Good, now repeat two thousand five hundred times… yikes! If that sounds like going in circles… it is.
There is something missing. The symptoms are boredom, complacency, and resentment; and the result will be high turnover, inferior service, and loss of reputation and business.
Thankfully, this will only happen to your competitors, because you are following the third of three simple principles scrawled by yours truly on a scrap of paper twenty-two years ago!
“Everybody needs to feel a part of something good.” Nine words. Nine innocent words. Act on them and transform your team; ignore them at your peril. This is definitely one you don’t want to miss; here’s why:
As a small business owner, you can do just about everything right… and still be hurt by small details… critically important, but seemly insignificant activities… that took a back seat to something else that seemed more urgent at the time. For example:
You can spend a small fortune attracting highly qualified and talented people to your organization; people with real impact potential. You can spend a ton of time training, coaching, and mentoring; inundating them with product knowledge and facts and figures and goals and quotas… processes, rules, and expectations.
But miss this simple principle, “Everybody needs to feel a part of something good,” and you’ll be back at the beginning of the previous paragraph; spending another small fortune trying once again to attract highly qualified, talented, people of impact to your organization.
You see, within that one small principle are all these other powerful attributes. Character traits and emotions such as ambition, energy, desire, and determination. Dedication, recognition, dignity and self worth. Excellence, pride, satisfaction and purpose. Hopes and dreams… loyalty and respect. Significance… and trust.
Winning organizations infuse values and behaviors into the culture that nurture, promote, and reward these characteristics. Winning companies understand that the principle “Everybody needs to feel a part of something good,” means that impact players need to believe in what they are doing, and also in whom they are doing it for. They need to know that their work is important, and that their leaders can be trusted. If either one is lacking… it is just a matter of time. But it doesn’t have to be.
As small business owners, we are responsible to ensure that our organizations have the values, products, and services that earn the respect of our communities, our customers, and our team. As leaders, we must work daily to earn loyalty and trust from those who depend on us. And we must anchor every activity with vision and purpose.
Remember, people promote and get excited about things they believe in; you can create a culture and environment that your impact players will fight for, and never want to leave. I look forward to hearing from you.
Additional thoughts and takeaways:
Potential leaders and impact players want to know that their work is important, and that their life has meaning and impact.
On a very basic level, people need to be proud of the company they work for, and will not follow leadership that they do not trust.
Loyalty and dedication are earned through shared values, lived daily.
Stability and consistency earn the respect and confidence of others.
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