Do you want your company/department/team to be successful? Highly productive? Envied and copied?

Then make your people happy.

You may be as tired hearing that as I and others are of writing it, but it’s true and here’s still more proof,

“But growth companies also tend to have high-performance, high-reward cultures that expect a lot from the people that work there…How do they get that kind of effort without a lot of grousing and grumbling among the troops?…They support their people with tools to get the job done: money, training, the latest technology if that’s applicable. “I never saw a business grow by cost-cutting,” said Sam Simon, founder and CEO of Taylor-based Atlas Oil Co…

If everyone in the organization knows why things are being done, feels like his or her input is respected and sees a shared sense of commitment and sacrifice, the odds of surviving, prospering — even ending up on a list of Top Workplaces — are pretty good…

Also no surprise were the traits that stood out among companies with the happiest workers in surveys of 23,372 employees conducted for the Free Press by WorkplaceDynamics of Exton, Pa. Strong values and ethics, plus confidence in the company’s leader and direction, came out on top.”

And the key to all that, along with personal happiness, is very close. In fact, accomplishing all this is roughly 80% MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and 20% money-based actions.

But if it’s both cheap and easy why isn’t it done more?

Whoa! I didn’t say it was easy, I said it was 80% in your MAP, which means in your control.

You say you work for a jerk who isn’t interested in these intangibles?

OK, but where does it say that you have to act the same way?

You say that there’s no money available to provide the support, i.e. technology and training?

That can be gotten around when it’s really true.

But if the execs are flying first class, receiving bonuses, let alone hefty ones, and have a history of feeding cake to the masses while they dine on caviar and filet, then you may want to think through exactly why you’re there.

Come back tomorrow for specific way to accomplish both the MAP and the money-based initiatives.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Innovation, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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