Understanding Them as Individuals

While supporting our team members’ purpose won’t always be easy, it does not have to be complicated. If you think back to I shared before on how we can recognize their purpose, specifically when we looked at the importance of listening to what they’re telling us, you likely remember the reference I made to Pat Lencioni’s book, The Truth About Employee Engagement, and how we can actively work to ensure anonymity isn’t something any of the folks on our team experience. To be sure that’s fresh in your mind, let’s revisit how Lencioni defined anonymity:

People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known. All human beings need to be understood and appreciated for their unique qualities by someone in a position of authority. As much as this may sound like an aphorism from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, it is undeniably true. People who see themselves as invisible, generic, or anonymous cannot love their jobs, no matter what they are doing.

When we’re at least competent in the tasks they’re required to perform and we’ve learned to recognize how they’re wired (which gives us a strong foundation for that social awareness piece, and recognizing the emotions of others), we’re able to practice self management in a way that genuinely contributes to relationship management; connecting what they’re doing to the organization’s purpose by adapting our communication style to provide the message they need most rather than how we’d normally share it. Not only does that increase the likelihood that our message will get through all the other noise we’re competing with, we’re showing each team member that we care enough about them to understand them as individuals. We appreciate their unique qualities, we recognize their individual needs, and they’re most definitely not invisible, generic, or anonymous!

Taking this specific step lays the groundwork for us to be extremely effective in connecting their work not just to what the company needs to achieve, but to a purpose that matters most to them. And as we’ve invested our energy into being able to remove that anonymity, we should also have learned the pieces that make up their individual definite purpose. This is critical in helping keep their purpose top-of-mind! Our next step, then, falls right in line; we can help them see exactly who they’re impacting through the purpose that’s driving them - and that’s where we’ll pick up next…