EmployeeNext: Creating success and joy at work

Spencer Johnson wrote a great little book that sales managers handed out by the millions called “Who Moved my Cheese?” I was managing a team of salespeople at the time it was first published and gave a copy to all my folks and read it myself. Quick read, took about an hour. Then I conducted a sales meeting to discuss the book.

Guess how many people had read it? About 30%. Guess how many people were performing at an acceptable level? About 30%. See a correlation here? Think my top two guys read it and also had some pretty insightful things to say about it — you bet!

And the 70% who didn’t read it also tended to be the ones who never worked a little extra, often complained they weren’t making enough, and didn’t want to venture out much to actually see their customers. Avoided finding new accounts or making a few cold calls, reading trade journals, or making other investments in their skills.

I learned a lot about human nature during the years I ran that business. I was always stunned watching my employees stay in their comfort zones, especially commissioned sales people whose actions directly affected their incomes. I did find that the more I involved them in information sharing about the actual running of the business and explained decisions that were made as if they were shareholders rather than employees (which in my opinion, they were!) I was able to motivate them to better results. But it was a constant struggle against their fear and negativity. Fear of failure, fear of the unknown, free-floating, unjustified, habitual fear.

I wondered then, and I wonder now — why do so many people struggle with fear at work? Why don’t we assume we will be successful — that we have the talent and the skills necessary to create a career that will bring us financial, personal, and spiritual rewards. Why not take a positive approach and bring our whole hearts and minds to our jobs? After all, we spend most of our time there. And many of us bring it home with us. It is important to our families’ present and future circumstances. It is really the biggest investment any of us will ever make.

One of the best ideas I was ever exposed to is the concept of being your own “corporation” whether or not you are self-employed. Why hire on to a job and abdicate your personal power to your employer? If you aren’t the best CEO of your own “corporation,” how could you possibly be your best at work?

And if you aren’t authentically who you really are at work, how could you possibly be your best?

We need to learn how to be authentic at work. We need to learn how to encourage and promote an atmosphere of trust. All of us. We need to create the freedom and the openness that breeds authenticity. No matter who we are — the boss or or a part time entry level trainee — we are all part of the organization, all connected. Everyone matters.

We don’t have to wait for someone to do this for us. Anyone can start. Change, whether its individual change or organizational change, happens best from the inside out. All it takes is the first step, the willingness to begin.

If we can go to work with the attitude that we are valued for who we really are, if we show up as ourselves, not the “work” version - but really ourselves — it follows that we will be happy at work because we will feel free, appreciated, and trusted. And when we are happy, we breed that in others. It’s catching!