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Everyone’s Audacious Goals are Going to be Different… And that’s not only ok it’s important.

June 3, 2020

I listen to a lot of motivational, self-improvement, business strategy type books.  I love to learn and think about things from different perspectives.  I have also been doing tons of research for my upcoming workshop on employee engagement.

Yesterday morning, I was listening to Jen Hatmaker’s book “Fierce, Free and Full of Fire” as I walked through our neighborhood.  The chapter yesterday was telling the listener/reader “You do you”.  Be who you are and be comfortable in your own skin.  It went on to extrapolate, not everyone has the desire to have big audacious goals to change the world.  Not only is it ok to not strive to change the world, it is important to have individuals to nurture the world, and individuals that can bridge the gap between our innovators and caretakers.

Everyone has their own sense of purpose, their own inner driving force.  The point Jen Hatmaker was making, it is vital that the individual listens to their own driving force and honors that with their work.  If your driving force is telling you to launch the next generation Space X rocket into space, you bust your tail, to make that happen.  If you driving force is to master the perfect home improvement project to make it Pinterest perfect, you do everything you can to make that happen.  If you just want to make sure the people in your life have homecooked meals, get to every sports practice and volunteer, make it happen.

The bigger take away for me, everyone has their own AUDACIOUS goals.  It looks different for each person and it changes as we learn and develop new skills and ideas.  And that is ok.  What is not ok is for anyone to tell the nurturer they have to meet the audacious goals of the innovator.  That is the fastest way to crush someone’s spirit and ensure nothing is successful.

As I continued my walk, it really hit me how much this particular chapter highlighted one of the biggest drivers for employee engagement.  According to Gallup, the largest percentage of employees ranked the ability to do what they do best as the very important in a job.  Employees want to use the skills they know and excel at to help companies succeed.

It is so important to really understand what skills and abilities your employees love to use, to maximize success.  If you have an innovator in a routine data entry position, without growth opportunities (they could be the future of your company with their next innovation), they will leave.  Conversely, if you have a detail-oriented person who loves the preciseness of data entry and loves achieving the metrics for more data entered, and you push them into a managerial role, not only will they struggle and feel frustrated, they too will leave.

Within your company you have to find the right people for the right jobs.  In addition, you have to create the developmental opportunities that motivate the individual.  Small companies those developmental opportunities don’t have to be promotions.  Let’s be real, when you are a crew of 5 promotion opportunities are small.  But there are cross training development opportunities, special projects and many others that allow challenges to those that need them to thrive.  Also, you have to think about those employees that have no desire to be promoted they love with position.  How are you going to continue to motivate them, recognize them and let them know you value their contributions to your company?

For your company to succeed, you need the innovator, you need the manager and you need the nurturer to balance the needs of all your stakeholders.  It is our job as business owners to provide the motivation, recognition and opportunities to allow our employees to thrive.  If we meet employee’s needs, we will see increased productivity and profitability.

If you would like to learn more about how to maximize your employees’ engagement, join me for my workshop “Creating an Engaged Workforce” Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 11 am PDT on Zoom.  You can sign up for the workshop at sowlesconsulting.com/engage.