Back in the mid-80s, Bob Geldof (Irish songwriter and activist) and colleagues set out on a mission to address a hunger crisis in Ethiopia. Through song releases and a worldwide simulcast concert typically known as “Live Aid,” the world’s humanity engaged in generating millions of dollars to assist in this famine effort. It was the first of its kind endeavor for such a critical need. Fundamentally, the mission was to bring worldwide attention to an area of the world and its real-life-threatening challenges that, for the most part, were not on the minds of many.
As business leaders, part of our responsibilities and accountabilities is to look beyond the confines of our office, our organization, our clients, and our communities to see what is going on around us. Then, in what way can the efforts of the business contribute to the betterment of a situation? As leaders, we have developed the skill to be both critical and conceptual thinkers. We expand what has been done to what can and needs to be done. Given this background, there is a clear need to invest in future generations to help them discover, nurture, and deploy their self-worth.
Leaders are always planning how to grow the business and make things more effective and efficient. They might stay in the weeds of the what and how of the details of the business because that is what they know best from their past. The reality is that nothing of great value happens without the people who actually make it happen. It has been said before that nothing happens until the sale happens, which is true, but equally important is that nothing will happen once the sale happens if your team is not well developed and engaged in moving into action.
Businesses of all sizes have been experiencing talent shortages across all levels of contribution. From entry level to specialist, getting talent for the business is as critical as finding new clients and servicing existing customers. One of the hidden challenges is that the candidate pool may have bodies, but many have not been developed or nurtured to bring self-worth with them into the marketplace.
As leaders, the marketplace is starving for talent that can come into the business and make an immediate contribution. As ideal as this sounds, leaders must recognize that the business currently needs to develop this component within their team members. When this is recognized, understood, appreciated, and then acted upon, it is a direct and very valuable contribution to future success.
It would be easy to regress and start pointing fingers and asking why this exists, but that action is of no value in moving your organization to a better level of success. Instead, use that energy to assist your team members in finding and developing their self-worth, and it will be returned to them and thus the organization multiple times over.
When an individual has self-worth, their confidence grows, their skill grow, and the whole person has greater value to themselves. This position enables them to be a bigger and better contributor on many fronts. As the leader of the business in which they exist, they will receive tangible benefits that they will spend for the rest of their lives. Yes, they need real cash to pay their bills, so we can’t dismiss that. However, when you develop the internal core of a person, they blossom into great talent. Oddly enough, their retention with the business tends to be longer, thus reducing turnover and retaining expenses.
This week, consider how you can support your team members in connecting with their self-worth, and explore ways the organization can foster their individual and collective growth to the next level.
As a leader at any level in an organization, when was the last time you explored your self-worth and how it was contributing or not contributing to your future success? Need a Promise Guide to walk alongside you on your journey? Give JKL Associates a call at FL (407) 984-7246 or MI (313) 527-7945.
Journey On!
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Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
