Significance

"He had a way of lifting the most ordinary of colleagues to a new appreciation of their worth." (Contemporary of Wernher von Braun, quoted in Space Race by Deborah Cadbury)

How proud are your staff to be working for you and your organisation? Do they have a sense that they are doing something significant, meaningful, something worthwhile?

Imagine your manager walked up to one of your colleagues and said, "You are just so insignificant!"

Ouch! That hurts. Who wants to be insignificant?

No one does.

In the workplace such a direct comment is simply inappropriate. The same message is communicated in many indirect ways.

Here are six easy ways.

  • Taking a phone call during a conversation

  • Asking for a piece of work and then never reviewing it

  • Always delaying an appraisal meeting

  • Not providing high quality feedback so they can improve

  • Always allocating low value tasks

  • Never giving the opportunity to do more.

Creating a sense of worth and inspiring significance is a very powerful motivator. Perhaps one of the most powerful motivators of all. It is our job as leaders is to build an environment so that each staff member feels they are doing something worth while and meaningful.

Subscribe

Sign up to get our posts via email. No more than one message per day.