What if there was a way to leverage the most under utilised resource in your business? And it won’t cost you a thing. Well, not financially anyway. It’s your people. We talk about technology being the great disruptor; and it has been, for many industries. But what tech has brought forth, is a new battle. The battle for attention and engagement. In the age of hyper-connectivity, with so many stories vying for our attention, As consumers and as people, we have to decide what it is . . we care about. What companies we let speak to us. Who we listen to. Who we believe in. And so for those of us who run companies, we have to think about what that means for us. We have to think about re-orientating our companies around what it is we believe in. And find the people to work with us to tell that story. The Opportunity in front of us right now is to build a committed group of people who operate with a clear collective sense of purpose. And then who allow those people to go out into the world and tell the story of the company for which they work.
It’s your People who are the biggest areas of untapped Opportunity. The reality is that a purpose driven culture doesn’t happen organically. It’s a deliberate act of creation and a deliberate decision to let it influence the kind of leader you are and the kind of company you build. It’s reframing how we think about people. The language we use matters, because it tells people how we see things. The way we report influences how we lead and how the company behaves. And sooner or later, that starts to impact how we make decisions.
It’s about a culture of leadership not management. A culture of coaching not commanding.It’s about rethinking the tools we use to reveal people’s best selves and drive performance for real impact. At its heart; it’s about changing the frame for how we think about people. How we encourage curiosity, empathy, compassion and leadership at every level. Because leadership isn’t about authority, it’s about people in their own teams saying 'I know where we need to get to here’, follow me . . I have an idea. When people are coached in a way that says . . We see the unique value you bring. Not only are they happier and more engaged, they’re more productive. And the companies that master it. They’re more profitable.
The most direct way to increasing productivity isn’t time management or CRM systems. It’s purpose. It’s people believing in the purpose and wanting to do better. Wanting to do the work that needs to be done. Culture isn’t a motto on a mouse pad or a quantified survey or a map of feeling. It’s about embedding the postures of curiosity, emotional agility, empathy, commitment to shipping but also vulnerability, . . into the way we are, every day, with every person.
When we reframe the conversation around how we work, as humans. The stories we tell ourselves and each other, about why we are, the way we are and . . where we fit . . what we can contribute. That’s the unfair competitive advantage.
How do we build amore creative and a more resilient organisation? How do we release the ingenuity of our people? How do we reveal the change makers who create lasting value and impact, not because you pay them, but because it matters to them. We have to start with ourselves. With the language we use. With the way we think about managing people in a company. Think about the touch points big and small; These are the pivot points. These are the cornerstones to a resilient and high performing organisation. But it’s our emotional agility that lets us see the sign posts. We need to put people at the heart of our growth strategy. Seriously enough, that we’re prepared to let some of our old practices go, and look again. Because real leadership is not just WHAT do we want to be? But also HOW do we want to be?
And remember, if it were easy . . . Everyone would have done it already.