Your team shows up, but do they *care*? Many founders watch their employees clock in, do the work, and then clock out without ever truly investing in the company's success. They don't run the extra mile. This isn't a failure of individual employees; it's a leadership problem.
Why would your team care about your win if it isn’t also theirs? Employees lose motivation when they have nothing to care about. If the company’s income jumps, or a new product takes off, what’s in it for them?
Liz Ryan, CEO of Human Workplace, put it plainly: “You can’t expect your employees to get excited over the paycheck, either, or even the modest bonus plan. We can’t expect them to perk up because their manager gives them a goal to hit. That’s fear-based management, and it’s never motivated anybody to do anything other than grudgingly comply with a supervisor’s command.”
Pay and benefits are baseline expectations. Employees want to work for someone who sees them as people, not just cogs. They want to feel part of a team chasing a bigger purpose, where their work and ideas genuinely drive the company forward. They want meaningful work.
How do you get your employees to care?
1. Stop telling, start asking
When you ask questions, you gather information before you issue an order or state an opinion. This helps you grasp the situation fully, avoiding mistakes. More importantly, it signals trust to your team.
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2. Show them the big picture
A powerful, lasting motivator for employees is the sense of meaning they get from their work. They find this meaning when they understand the larger context and how their daily tasks make a difference. Constantin Stanislavsky's phrase, "Theatre begins at the cloakroom," captures this: everyone contributes to the final product. You need to show employees at every level how their work impacts the company's overall mission.
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3. Help them track their daily efforts
Even with a clear understanding of their job's impact, employees can lose focus on day-to-day operations. They forget why they're there. Help them remember. Luis Efron, writing for Forbes, noted that a maternity ward in Arizona plays a lullaby in the hallways when a baby is born. Not every company can do that.
But you can find other ways to show your team that the organization achieves something each day, moving closer to its goals. Notify the whole company when a new customer deal closes, or when you hit a significant milestone
towards company or department goals. Your company intranet can also display progress on production, sales, and objectives. It shows them the score.
4. Show them *you* care
Companies that care about their employees trust, listen to, and respect them. They also acknowledge achievements, give timely feedback, and offer flexibility for work-life balance. To do this, you must understand what truly matters to your team. Many companies spend heavily on perks employees don't value. Often, a half-day off or some
flexibility in work hours would motivate them more.
Businesses need to stop looking for ways to extract more value from employees. Instead, focus on making employees more valuable each day. Investing in their development not only
boosts company productivity but also cuts turnover.
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Be a company that has a positive social impact. Employees are more satisfied when they can help others. Net Impact found employees in "impact" jobs were twice as satisfied at work. The 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT survey showed that employees who frequently volunteer through work are nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied with their career progression.
