A Proposal of Personal Purpose

The world of business communication is evolving. More employees are working remote, more conference calls less office gatherings, and more webinars with less classroom training. There are those who say we have lost our human connection but ask yourself one simple question:


Where is the Revenue?

How much more productive have you become? It seems a little silly to admit we are so mistrusting of our employees that we require them to commute an hour in both directions and sit in a cage for 10 hours. This to ensure their work time is maximized. If you waste two hours driving and sit in a cubicle will you be more productive?

A company cannot determine personal purpose but they can use it to fuel their success:
* If you trust me to invest myself in the company vision I will determine my own prodution - and that's a good thing!

* To the contrary, if a 40 year old still has to be baby sat, he/she will do just enough to stay off the radar.

Don't you want your people On The Radar? Out in the open, in front of initiatives, excited to participate, engaged in the company culture...?

Yes, there certainly is such a thing as EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT. Call it what you will to avoid stigmatizing your company culture but if you create a company culture that mirrors personal purpose your company will double it's revenue.

Here's How:
Trust
Pay more for better people
Replace Performance Reviews with consistent dialogue
Say Thank You - every day
Create a Path that starts and ends where you are

A Big Boy Job
Maybe you love filling out spread sheets. Maybe you enjoy reporting, maybe your favorite thing is to defend your work to your boss. Or maybe you have had a series of jobs that have justified your employment through on-paper production. Anyone can count blips in a system and justify your effort. But, let's not confuse effort with results.

You may have gotten so used to taking a task list and checking boxes that you have lost your personal purpose. You need to find a way to give meaning to the numbers, categories and columns. If no one is challenging you to put you into your work, do it yourself.

An Inconsistent Environment
How can you keep winning if your team always turns over.
#Fact - It takes at least 6 months to train a new employee
#Fact - Time lost over six months costs your company dearly

Stop going the cheap labor route. Pay more for better people and avoid turnover. The incremental back filling is a default for a poor company culture due to terrible middle management.

Performance Review Suck!
There I said it...if you only have a dialogue with your employee once a year through a 1 - 5 job saving evaluation, you suck at managing people!

Believe it or not you can help people MAKE PROGRESS every day by examining their extended personal purpose in the organization. NO, you don't have to ask about TPS Report status but you can ask about their input regarding cost saving initiatives in their department.

Say Thank You!
Basketball Analogy: You can motivate by the bench or the basket. If every day I pull you aside and tell you if you screw up I will bench you - you will do just enough to stay in the game. If I empower you to score by instilling confidence in your ability, you will have the balls to take a last second shot.

THINK ABOUT IT!

Be Present
I used to think I wanted a promotion. It seemed that climbing the corporate ladder was a validation of my effort. That is an irrelevant measure of success.

Tell me WHY I am where I am today. Help me find my extended personal purpose in the organization. If you can do this I will work harder, stop asking for more money and stay focused on the task at hand.

In a floundering economy, one thing is always prevalent: OPPORTUNITY!

Most companies avoid opportunity by allowing perception and opinion to steer them toward the 'safe thing'. As an affect of this; poor management rules the nest, purpose is lost and employees can't wait for happy hour...A waste of money, a loss of production, countless opportunities ignored, a cog turning existence without personal purpose...A company that sucks the life out of people and drives them to the grave having gained nothing!

WAKE UP & MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Help us find our purpose!

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave