Human Capital Enterprise - The value is in your people
In this more open and super connected world, lines between all stakeholders have been blurred. Employees, customers, consumers, suppliers work much more closely together. This has lead to a different type of leadership – one that is much more about freedom, collaboration and trust rather than control.
For years leaders in business have said that their people are their biggest asset and yet behaviours of control driven by fear and mistrust, have made employees feel far from an organisation’s biggest asset.
Leaders in 21st century organisations now behave in a way that gives their people more of a voice, that recognises the importance of creating an environment where their people are fully engaged and feel a true part of the business, where they have true influence.
And this relationship stretches outside the organisation. Your customers are also human and want that same feeling of connection. Who you know, who trusts you enough to do business with you, becomes your competitive advantage.
And this leads me to speak about values. Engaging both your own people and your customers is about a cultural change that has your organisation explicitly living its brand values and engaging all its people inside and outside the organisation with those values.
This represents a fundamental change in your business that permeates the entire organisation. Your marketing and brand messaging will have to move from a product message to one that engages your people with what you stand for. Here again lies a trap – saying it and not demonstrating it on a daily basis will be your downfall. And it will not only be your external marketing that needs to change. The values need to be reflected in all your company processes and all interactions with all your stakeholders. This is where culture becomes your strategy.
Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton go two steps further in their whitepaper “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”. They use the formula E+E+E for success – Engaged + Enabled + Energised. Achieve this and culture is no longer something soft, but the strategy for future success.
What drives your culture?
How do you regard the people in your company?
How do you show them?
How are you organised?
What defines your leadership?
Are your people engaged, enabled and energised?
What is your relationship with control?
To find out how you can do this in your organisation, contact me at sonia@valueu.com and let's get the discussion started.
Next: Trust (this is a big one!)
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