The #1 Strength of Your Company

What is the greatest strength of your company? Your brand? Market share? Customer base? Cash flow? Operational efficiency?

Speaking to the American Management Association shortly before his death, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, said that, “Heartpower is the strength of your corporation.”

Coach Lombardi was right!

Look behind any of your company’s greatest accomplishment and you will find that its driving force was not necessarily a brilliantly conceived strategy (although that helps) or a seamlessly executed plan (that would be a miracle).  The driving force behind all great organizational achievements is the engaged hearts, minds, and souls of the employees.

The Most Underutilized Resource

The unengaged soul of employees may be the most underutilized resource in business today.  It’s a limitless resource available to every company, yet few companies take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, most managers choose to ignore this untapped resource.  They prefer to hide behind the “bottom line” and to manage people on the sole basis of the hard, cold numbers of the business.  In doing so, they fail to capitalize on the single greatest motivator of them all.

Companies that engage the hearts and souls of employees seldom need worry about motivation. Engaged souls motivate themselves.  Engaged souls experience the excitement of a challenge, the thrill of competition, and the joy of success.  As Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, says, “You don’t need to manage self-motivated people, and nearly everyone is motivated when they are doing a job they believe in.”

How to Engage Your Employees

Engaging the soul of all workers is the very core of any successful enterprise. Today’s great managers engage the souls of their employees through focusing on three strategies:

1. Live a compelling purpose
2. Work/Life Integration
3. Celebrate and have fun

To learn more on how to integrate these strategies with real-world simple best practices, download Culture 24/7: Four Keys to Growing a Great Workplace.