It’s all about values! Not the forced, PR / Company values but the true values of the Senior Management and the people of the organization. If you really want to reach your people, find out who they are and what is really important to them. These values overtly or covertly form the real values of the organization. As leaders, we need to engage our employees by connecting their values to the mission. This means you aren’t trying to “Fix” anyone – you are trying to reach them.
Think of a conversation you have had with someone who was talking all about them and what they wanted. You might have been interested at first but as the conversation went on and on about them, your mind drifted away. The same thing happens when leaders and/or companies talk all about what they want or what they care about. If you turn it to what is important to your people, they will feel connected to you and to the organization in a much more powerful way. Find out what inspires them, not just by what they directly tell you, but by watching for signs of when they come alive or when they are truly excited about the work or the teams or something outside of work.
How Can You Accomplish This?
1. Ask: Who Inspires You?
Who are the people in their world they aspire to be? This could be someone famous but quite often, it is someone close them. Ask what it is about that person that they admire. What do they do to model that person’s behavior or belief system every day? Keep this in mind as you are working with this person. Are they excited about a project or do they appear to back away? What values are being honored or not being honored at that moment?
2. Ask: What Causes Motivate You?
Does this person go for the underdog? Do they want to feed the hungry? Are they inspired by technology and want to bring it to others? You can ask these questions but you can also look at the role they take on within the team.
3. Ask: What Drives You Crazy?
Learn your people’s values and respect them. If you notice that a messy desk, people running late to a meeting or dismissing the ideas of a lower level employee drives this person crazy, that tells you a lot about their values and how you can learn to respect them.
4. Ask: How do You Like to Be Acknowledged?
Ask them this directly but also watch how they acknowledge or recognize others around them. If they give a card or an email, you should do the same for them.
Remember, part of this is asking but the other part is really listening – not just to what they are saying but by noticing the things that resonate with them. The values for each individual are what drives them. It is the key deciding factor as to whether they are engaged or not. Most people just want to feel like they have a place where they are “home”. Where people care, not just about the work, but also care about each other. Authentically, not contrived – that is the trick here. As a leader, you have to be really interested in what motivates your people, listen to it, encourage it and make sure that they have access to the things that will allow them to feed that value.
How have you learned about your employees values? What seemed to resonate most with them and with you? We would love to hear from you. Leave your comments below.