It happens all the time – company owners trying to communicate their passion for their baby (their company) to their employees, only to be met with those ‘there-they-go-again’-eyes. If this is you, all you need to make are small tweaks to your mission statement. You’ll be surprised at what may happen.
In his audio Why Don’t My Employees Care as Much as Me?, expert Michael Whitehouse uses a simple but highly effective allegory for a company’s mission statement and offers a strong reminder of the importance of mindset when it comes to motivation.
The Allegory
Let’s start with a little story that will illustrate what Whitehouse means.
There were three bricklayers working on a cathedral, all doing the same job. Someone came along and asked the first bricklayer, ‘what are you doing?’ And the first one said ‘I’m laying bricks, what does it look like I’m doing?’
He went to the second one and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ The second one said ‘I’m building a wall’. And the third one, when asked the same question, said, ‘I’m building a cathedral’.
Clarity
See what happened there? Can you imagine how your employees could resemble those three bricklayers? Can you picture those who are laying bricks and those who are building the cathedral? What could be the missing link?
Perhaps it’s clarity. Are you 100% clear about what your company does? What is their place in the world? What is exciting about it as an owner? Is it that it’s making a lot of money? If so, what are you doing with that money? Is it that you are doing something good in the world? What is the ripple effect of what you do?
Communication
The next question is: are you painting that picture for your employees on a regular basis?
Once you’ve understood what the big picture is yourself, you need to explain to your team how they fit into it and are making a difference – this can be particularly important for the nitty gritty jobs like legal or HR departments who may forget they are building a cathedral.
What you want is for your employees to feel the same way you do, to feel like owners themselves. Mindset and imagery may help with communicating your purpose.
Living the purpose
Another key aspect here is that you are also living the purpose.
Make sure your company is actually following its mission and is not focusing on minimising liability or maximising profits and minimising costs at the expense of it.
Want to know more? Tune into Why Don’t My Employees Care as Much as Me? By Expert Michael Whitehouse to take your health to the next level.
