Employees want their work to have impact

Employees want their work to matter and their workplace to have a positive impact in the world ((Kruse)). How do leaders give their employees the conviction that their work matters? More effective than affirmation, a leader who gives clear priorities to his employees motivates them that the business is moving forward.

Consider two employees, Fred and Sally. Both hold the same sales position at their company, but they have different managers. Once a year the CEO announces to the company what their sales goal is, and the sales department decides how to meet that goal. Fred’s manager reminds him of the goal at their weekly one-on-one, but he doesn’t give any direction to Fred’s sales efforts. When Fred makes a sale, his manager recognizes him, but it doesn’t matter who the new sales opportunity is or who Fred is selling to next. Sally, on the other hand, is given the same reminders and recognition as Fred, but her manager adds a monthly review to focus Sally’s efforts on the biggest sales opportunities.

Sally closes fewer deals than Fred, but the deals she closes matter more. While Fred completes a number of easy deals and gets recognition for them, in the back of his mind he feels dissatisfied that his efforts aren’t making a noticeable dent in the company’s yearly goal. When Sally closes another major deal, Fred works even harder to match her success. The recognition he receives begins to sound hollow as the hours he puts into his sales work fail to produce significant results. Even when Fred increases his sales hours by 20%, he makes no progress. He’s fighting hard to catch up with Sally, but he’s working on the wrong areas because his manager makes no effort to focus his priorities.

When a single employee works on whatever comes to hand instead of the most important work, a business may not get the maximum results that employee might offer. But when an entire team lacks priority because the manager gives no direction to their efforts, all their efforts could be squandered on immediate and short-term gains. Not only does this impact the business' bottom line, but the discouragement caused to an ineffective workforce will only serve to further reduce the benefit to the company ((Maxwell)).

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