3 Key Steps to Align Your Leadership Goals with Employee Productivity
Motivating your people is hard. Sure, you’d like to increase their productivity to protect your margins, which can be tight on some projects. But what’s in it for them? Why would they choose to work harder, if only to make your business a little more profitable?
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little-known secret is that there’s a way to align your commercial interests with your people’s personal interests. But it takes strong leadership to create a culture in which everyone benefits from improved performance. This article will serve as your guided tour of three key steps that are most likely to yield results, from my experience as chief executive officer (CEO) of a multibillion-dollar industrial business.
1. Safety First It starts with safety. It’s often said people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Working at heights and in confined spaces pose significant risks each day. Every employer says safety comes first, but few are found to mean it when their words are put to the test. Safety is the beachhead where your credibility with your people is won or lost. If your people truly believe that you will choose to put their well-being ahead of your profits, you’ll get their attention. From there, you have something to work with. And, surprisingly, a safe business is a profitable business. I’ve seen companies collapse when a fatality on a worksite caused them to lose a major client contract. I’ve seen companies pay lip service to safety by putting onerous (or worse, irrational) procedures in place. All this serves to do is breed cynicism in the workforce. When you get the chance to show that your actions match your words, don’t let it pass you by. The start of the journey is knowing and understanding that the only thing that truly keeps your people safe is the culture and behaviors each of them exhibits. Committing to bringing them up to that standard is your role as a leader, and one of the toughest challenges you’ll face — it’s the battle for their hearts and minds. To get results, you must commit to building a
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team of managers and supervisors who take safety seriously and aren’t afraid to enforce the highest standards. Not everyone will rise to meet the standard, and that’s when you have to make tough decisions.
2. Company & Employee Values With the foundation of a safe environment, the next challenge is to align your people to your company’s value proposition. You don’t have to create a noble purpose that transcends mere construction work to do this. You simply need to have a clear link between the things that drive value for your company and the things your people need to do to achieve that. People are much more likely to offer their discretionary effort if they can see the contribution they’re making to the overall objectives. There’s nothing worse than someone feeling as though their efforts don’t make a difference. If you can show people the difference their efforts make and provide reinforcement for a job well done, you’ll start to notice a spring in their step. Encouraging continued on page 65
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