“If you can give them the WHY, kiddo – the what and the how are gonna follow naturally.” – The Colonel
As we face what has been dubbed “The Great Resignation,” the necessity for existing employees to be engaged becomes increasingly imperative. The 20th-century concept of doing a task or a project just because your boss told you to is an antiquated and ineffective way to achieve retention and productivity in today’s workforce. Without a solid “why”, you often end up with half-baked outcomes, shoddy performance, and minimal loyalty.
All credit to Simon Sinek who has made this concept more popular, The Colonel understood this ahead of its time. He was a master at connecting the “if you do this, then this will happen” dots for his daughters and his staff.
My sister and I are very different people. As kids, Christi was intellectual and focused, while I was flighty and social. The reason Christi did something might be a chance to earn more allowance to put toward that car she’d been saving up for. That was very different from the reason that I would do something (say, getting permission to join my friends at the park or the pool and stay there an hour longer than normal). Dad would design and communicate our incentives accordingly.
If you can communicate why your team wants or needs to do something—give them the “what’s in it for them”—then the means for achieving that task or project will usually come from them.
It’s imperative, therefore, that you get to know your team well because one person’s “why” may be very different from another person’s. One size does not necessarily fit all.
A leader’s job is vision building and vision casting. A crucial part of that vision is why it matters to them.
Read Lauren’s Whitepaper on The Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership.
Pick up the Colonels of Wisdom Series Vol 1 and Vol 2 here.