Tapping Into The Potential of Your People

Have you registered for the Startup Academy April Cohort starting 1st April? Join others founders to build the next breakthrough startup that will enrich Nigerians and the world.

The Conference Board reports that 53 percent of Americans are currently unhappy at work. How can half of all workers be unhappy? One of the major challenges with work is that no one cares about the employee. You are even told the workplace is not a place to make friends or be happy.

That mindset stems from slavery. All the master cared about is for the slave to do what he is told. No one cares about how the employees feel or what they are going through. You are employed and paid to do what you are employed to do: job description.

People spend a major part of their lives in the workplace. It should mean something to them. They should be the same at work as they are at work. They should be happy, fulfilled, and feel safe and a sense of belonging. People should come with their hearts, minds, and bodies to the workplace. They should be fully engaged and present at work.

Employers get a fraction of the potential of employees because they don’t know how to tap into the full potential. Companies that want to tap into the potential of their people need to become truly human. When you touch the humanity of people, you release the divine in them. The divine is creative.

Here are some companies that have been able to release the potential of people. They are valued in trillions of dollars.

Apple Inc through iTunes and its apps stores. It enables people to be creative and earn from their creativity and the value they create for others. They created a tool that helps people record videos and edit them.

Amazon.com Inc through its online stores. It enables people to sell whatever they created and write books and earn from it without going through the traditional way of route of publishing.

Alphabeth Inc through Youtube. It empowers people to become actors and live their dream while earning money. People who have dreamt of acting but are unable to get roles with mainstream directors used the platform to earn their acting career and earn more.

Meta Platforms Inc through Facebook and Instagram. It empowers people to create video content and get paid for it helping people fulfill their lifelong dreams.

One thing they have in common is that they tap into the potential of their people and everyone. People create value on their platform and earn money based on that platform. You get paid for doing what you love doing. This is the Truly Human Way.

Truly Human Culture

To tap into the potential of your people (have them come with their hearts, minds and bodies to the workplace), you will need to develop the Truly Human Culture. The way you treat people will determine how they respond to you. We are no longer at a time when employers treat employees as people who don’t matter.

When people feel cared for, dignified and honored, they will be more engaged. Engagement here means bringing their soul, heart, and body to the workplace. When they bring their heart, they are passionately invested in the workplace. When they bring their soul, they take responsibility for whatever takes place in the workplace.

To get everyone engaged, companies should adopt the Truly Human Culture.

1. Truly Human Leadership: You need leaders who will see themselves as stewards of lives entrusted to them, and are ready to reproduce others as leaders and recognize them for doing good. Truly Human Leaders measure success by the impact they make in the lives of the people they lead.

2. Truly Human Value Proposition: You have to promise people a work environment that allows them to be all they can be, do the greatest work they can get when they want to do it, and work with people who care for them and they like.

3. Truly Human Traits: When you treat people as humans you draw out their humanity and they will treat everyone humanely. Create an environment that is human-centered. Let treating people as humans be sacred in the workplace. People should feel cared for and respected to be engaged.

The organization that is able to tap into the potential of its people will dominate its market and be a monopoly in the industry. Companies that empower people will unleash their potential while those who use people never unleash it.

JOIN THE APRIL COHORT

When you join the April Cohort of the Startup Academy, in 3 months you will learn to:

1. Attain offering-need fit

2. Validate your Value Proposition

3. Prove Your Business Model

4. Develop your Customer Acquisition System

5. Design Your Culture

To be part, kindly send a WhatsApp message to +2348101671745