Left out...Check Out

?

Read time: 2:50 minutes

Hey! Humberto here.

Here’s the next issue of Invest in the Message to help you scale your operations with people-focused tactics.

What you get in each issue?

Genuine content from my insights, 1 actionable tactic, and my perspective of why it works.

Enjoy!

Big thank you for taking the time to check out my newsletter!

Insight

What drives my thinking in this issue is ensuring people are not only engaged, but involved.

Operational execution isn’t just built on processes and systems.

As leaders we tend to tunnel vision on costs and profit. Profits are the blood flow of any organization and costs restrict that flow. Together, they’re extremely vital to measure your company’s effectiveness.

But, look past metrics for a moment as these numbers get impacted in a linear manner.

Looking back on my own experience, I wanted a better sense of “why” I’m doing the work.

Let’s dive in.

Action

I went all in with Organizational Development. It’s where I experienced how human behavior drives companies.

Most of our education and professional development centers on operations. That sole focus makes us leaders highly effective at building processes. Yet, we overlook how people interact with those processes and systems.

Understanding the interaction of people and processes provides valuable context into execution.

Design your people’s work at the individual level so they’re not left out. Once a person feels left out, they check out.

Here’s 5 Areas to Design With the Work In Mind:

1. Skill Variety

If the work is boring and doesn’t challenge your people, there’s no room to grow.

Providing consistent opportunities that test your people’s capabilities is key. Growing in-house talent isn’t just about attracting them with pay.

A mix of unfamiliar work needs to exist within everyday work. Believe in your people’s capacity and guide them through the work where needed.

2. Task Significance

Is it entry-level work, advanced work, or somewhere in between?

This question determines which job roles have a meaningful impact on others.

High task significance provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment. These roles allow more creative freedom. It leverages personal and professional experience to solve more complex problems.

People with high task significance are no longer relying on direction. They’re developing solutions through gut instinct and information.

3. Feedback

This one is straightforward, but let’s put an emphasis on personalization. Don’t simply check the boxes with obvious performance metrics.

Personalize the feedback by creating a collaborative experience with the following questions:

·What do you feel went right?

·How do you see this applies to our strategy?

·What felt most challenging, and how did you work past the experience?

·What did you least like and why?

·Do you have ideas on how to improve our process?

·How do I continue to support your growth?

These questions show your interest in their growth. It signals that as a leader you’re there to learn and support them.

PRO TIP: do this with sharing of your own (it's an experience, not a conversation)

Guess what? You just...

??Held the space for operational vulnerability

??Shared your experience

??Mentored/coached your people

And still tackled the work!

4. Autonomy

We’re adults, we want a hand in our own professional destiny. Yes, it’s earned through our contribution.

But, it’s your responsibility as a leader to lay out the game plan, rules, and how to engage the work.

If your people don’t understand their role and responsibilities, then there’s no sense of ownership. Plus, you need to co-create KPIs so both sides understand how to judge the work.

Do this well, and your people hold themselves accountable to their decisions.

5. Task Identity

This one builds off Autonomy because it’s all about building a sense of ownership. The more your people own their role, the greater chance they see the impact of their work.

At this point, the balls in your court. Celebrate all the wins, especially, the small wins. Acknowledge all aspects of work from start to finish.

We cheer the big wins because it’s the obvious thing to do. But, those big wins get built on incremental small wins that compounded into the big win.

Perspective

It’s effective because work gets inspired with focus on the people performing the tasks. Build the work by experiencing the work through your people’s eyes.

Ultimately, you are building a story that speaks to your people and gets them engaged. When you know how to maximize your people’s unique value, the rest takes care of itself.

Until the next one, stay present, celebrate the small wins, and involve your people.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you’re company out:

1.???????Personal consult for organizational leaders where we’ll discuss scaling changes and you’ll walk away with 3 actionable leadership strategies.

2.??????360° Operations Audit covering an end-to-end assessment of your company to create sustainable operational alignment.

Cheers!??

Humberto

P.S. Felt this helped, let me know. You want back those 3 minutes of your life, tell me about it. Like you, I’m here to learn and challenge myself to grow.