One Powerful Question to Unleash Employee Potential
Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” That is a powerful call to action for the human race. Well, the same applies to business leaders seeking to make change in their companies. Organizational change cannot occur if leaders and employees are not fully engaged. Nicely stated from Jim Haudan’s piece in Business2Community.
Wasted Money on Engagement Efforts
It got me to think about all this engagement talk. Engaged, disengaged, productive, and not as productive. The millions of dollars spent every year on surveys trying to figure out who is really “fully engaged” or not. And then, what to do about it?
As usual, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest we dispense with the surveys, the results, the data analyses, the number crunching. Why? Because at the end of the day you are dealing with human beings, employees, who each one are different and need different things. As I said in an earlier post on the physical work environment, one size does not fit all. And, as Liz Ryan of the Human Workplace says often, “ Bring the human back to the human workplace”.
Unleash More than Just Potential
Marshall Goldsmith had a great article in BusinessWeek on unleashing potential. He actually harnessed it as unleashing “genius”. Your employees are talented. Each and every one of them. And we do want to live to our greatest potential. So, how about you ask your employees the one question to unleash this potential, this genius, this unbelievable talent?
One Question to Ask
Ask them this…. (courtesy of Inc.)
Do you consider your current role your ideal job? What more could you be doing that would benefit the business — and make the experience more enjoyable for you in the process?
That’s it. Ask this question regularly and often and yes, and make changes depending on the answers you get. That means take action, align talent to the right roles, the right work, and unleash your employees’ talent. You will reap the rewards and so will they.
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As the CEO & Founder of East Tenth Group, Michelle leverages 25 years of business and experience as a strategic advisor and executive coach to help drive actionable people solutions and provide practical insights on business strategy to senior leaders. she and her team and are fiercely committed to the development and growth of people and companies because we believe that when people thrive, business thrives.
