The Reason Why

“Good leaders organize and align people around what the team needs to do.
Great leaders motivate and inspire people with why they’re doing it.”
~ Marillyn Hewson

Your people do the job because they get a paycheck in return. If one of them won the lottery tomorrow, you could reasonably expect that you’d need to start hiring a replacement for them next week.

But consider: what would keep your people coming back, even if they didn’t need that paycheck? What would keep them coming back to your company, when other companies also can offer a competitive paycheck?

What’s your purpose? What’s your mission? What’s your vision? What are the values of your company and your team?

Find ways to bring out the “why” of what you do, and share this with your people. Do you make people’s lives better? Do you help them have a more fulfilling career? Do you create things that will last for generations? Do you create things of beauty? Do you build things that keep people safe?

When you and your people feel a sense of purpose in what you do, the same tasks become more motivating, more fulfilling, and more psychologically satisfying. Higher morale and retention will flow from this.

(image generated using Midjourney)