If you’re not valuing your people and not involving them, then your development, as an organisation, company or team, is reliant upon ideas and full engagement coming from very few places.
If one hundred people are working for an organisation, but the development of the company is reliant upon the intellectual capital of five or six of those people, then the organisation is missing out on 95% of all the ideas that could propel it forward. That just doesn't make sense. I believe that everybody has valuable ideas and something to contribute.
Giving them the opportunity to contribute ideas/suggestions, especially within their area of responsibility, does not mean that they all have to be accepted.
If people don’t feel like they’re being valued, this can create a sense of resentment. This is natural because they're not being seen and they're not being heard. It leaves people not wanting to help the company or the organisation. This feeling can then manifest in poor behaviours, which may be conscious or unconscious, passive withdrawal or, at other times, can manifest in a more active effort to sabotage things.
We've seen it in this season’s football, with a team like Chelsea. This was a team that won the championship last year. However, there was clearly a problem with the manager this year, which has caused discontent. As a result, the very same team was down towards the bottom of the table because the players had emotionally withdrawn from the goal of winning football matches. Their sense of wellbeing and purpose had been affected by soured relationships.
Additionally, if we're a team leader and a manager, we have a duty of care. When people are ignored or pushed aside there are often health consequences as a result of the stress. This is surely not a legacy that we would wish our company to carry.
What can we all do to help people feel more valued?
#1 Give people autonomy
I'm a believer in the self-determination theory, which really confirmed my idea of how we engage students in a classroom, how we engage people in sport and people in business. One of the key ideas in this theory is the need for some autonomy. It’s not about being separate or independent from others, but, rather, the urge to be the causal agents in one’s own life; to have some element of choice.
If people don't have a sense that they have some form of choice or agency in their place of work then that comes at a real cost. Any little thing that we can involve people with, which provides a sense of autonomy and choice, has a very strong influence on emotional engagement and making people feel valued.
#2 Relate what is happening to people
Whenever you make a big announcement, people will, naturally, think first about the impact this will have on them. As an organisation or as a coach, look for a way to make what we’re doing relate to our people and their purpose. Then, we can start to build strong connections and relationships within the organisation, which leads to a real emotional connection.
#3 Give people the opportunity to get better at what they're doing
Are we supporting our people? Is there constant professional development and coaching whereby we show a real interest in them as professionals? Are we really giving them that kind of care? If we are, then they’ll give even more back to the organisation. It’s about genuine investment in people and it works both ways.
