Future Proof your Business with ‘Why’ (A great question to ask).
What line of business are you in? manufacturing?, construction?, accountancy?, insurance?
Well, yes, many of you are - but go a bit further. What do your products and services do for your end clients?
I worked for a firm of lawyers and the senior partner asked me to run some customer services training courses which didn’t go down too well with a few of his people. One responding, "Who do you think we are? bloody Tesco’s?"... "It’s their privilege to work with us." I then asked the question ‘What line of business are you in?’ and the response was naturally we are in a legal profession which was obviously true.
But I encouraged my lawyer friends to go further and I asked, ‘but, what do you do for your clients?’ and they came to the conclusion that they changed people’s lives for better or worse depending on their situation and their circumstances. One senior lawyer, commented, ‘I have never thought of my work like that,’ as we looked and specific examples.
So, what does your business do? What impact do you have on your end users? Helping your people to understand the real value they bring their end users can be a big motivator and turn just a job in to a purpose and give team members a real sense of value of achievement.
Helping people to understand their contribution to the end goal and how their efforts contribute towards the benefit of their end users can improve levels of engagement and motivation.
Everyone is more motivated by the fact that they are adding value, contributing and fully understanding why they are doing what they are doing and the benefits their efforts bring. Understanding this can bring team members real purpose.
To help understand this concept further please consider reading "Start With Why", by Simon Sinek.
He provides some great examples of companies who have developed this concept and how, as a result, they have employees who are more in tune with the purpose of the business compared with companies that haven't. He will introduce you to his golden circle which is a simple, but more importantly, very effective concept. When applied to your business it can drastically improve the performance of your people and the business. Give it a go!