What If? Why Not?

It’s that time of year.?That time when business slows down, only to accelerate.?

An annual tradition, in many businesses, actually most, this time of year, is to have discussion upon discussion about what the new year may have in store for our organizations.?Of course! It’s time to plan for what we will create.?

Time to review our goals.?Map out new and exciting strategies of how we will make all our dreams come true. Every. Single. One

?I notice this every year. As winter nears, we start to anticipate the new.?I also notice that we may be leaving a vital element of planning out of our strategies.?It seems we plan for everything, but…People.?

It’s a funny thing to me, but still, it never fails, that we seem to plan more about the plans,

and not how we are actually going to make it all happen.?And by make it happen, I mean people.?Who’s going to make it happen? How will the people make it happen?

I'm convinced that we mostly just expect our people to get the job done.?Besides, they did it last year and maybe the year before. I propose we think about, WHAT IF.?Besides, we are allowed to do that during this magical time of year.

Not ‘what if’ we meet all of our goals, not, ‘what if’ all our dreams come true, but the ‘WHAT IF’ we give our people the tools they need to do all these wonderful things we’ve tasked them with??

What If now becomes WHY NOT?!

I propose we invest in our people first. WHY NOT?

The list of what ‘ifs’ and ‘why nots’ is certainly much longer than is read-able in one sitting.?Let’s start with FIVE ways you can and should invest in your people, before you invest in anything else, starting NOW.

GOALS.?Small word. Big implications.?

There are two distinct paths, as it relates to goals for your people.?

Goals you set for them, and goals they set for themselves.?What if the goals they set for themselves are just as important as the goals you, the organization, sets for them??

What if both are important??Beginning now, they can be. ?What’s in it for you is double the reward from your people. When we help others with what’s important to them, it’s returned to us. I learned about the law of reciprocity very early on.?It works.?We gain more when we help others. Reciprocity will not fail you.?I can promise you that.

Succession planning:?This phrase scares even the most daring CHRO.?It’s mostly a nice little plan in our performance management platform, ?and it’s somewhere… deep in the HR folder.?

Succession planning makes its way to daylight a couple times a year; either when we lose an important member of a team, and/or at performance review time, BUT never when it should.?

What if a succession plan was treated as the road map it should be? ??Bring it into the light daily.?Share it with the person it was authored for, the employee.?Your actual employee will give you insight on how to help them best.?

Hint - To do that you will need to spend time with the employee. For a more effective and enjoyable journey together, tweak the roadmap and revise the navigation.

Emotional Intelligence training:?Emotional intelligence is?the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to?relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. The World Economic forum tells us that Emotional Intelligence is likely the most important skill set we need in our possession to be successful.?EI training is truly as great as it sounds.?There is effort required, just like increasing any other skill set. ?What if we stop simply talking about it and try it??This initiative alone will

empower your people to do things they, and you, never thought possible.

It may sound cliché to mention skill development. Upskilling is?the process of using additional training or education to build upon and advance your current skills. I am surprised at how many organizations seem to ignore upskilling.?This is a non-negotiable for your employees.?Business has changed dramatically, especially in the last two years.?We’ve all had to pivot.?That includes learning new processes, new methods, and sometimes full blown, new skillsets.?If you really want to engage your employees, ask them what skills they’d like to acquire to help them most in their role.?They know the most about the role they are in.?Try it.?You won’t be disappointed.?

Time off.?This sounds pretty basic, but really it’s not.?It’s great to be needed. And it’s also great to take a breather.?Your employees sometime need a day or two to decompress.?To start fresh.?To breathe.?Even when it’s inconvenient.

They are human, just like you.

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