Lead by Valuing Your Most Important Asset

As a great leader you certainly know your external stock price, but how well is your internal stock doing? Do you know your internal stock price value – do you value your employees? Gallup studied more than 80,000 managers to find what they do to create quality workplaces. One of the 12 key discoveries from a multiyear research project was that great leaders know the importance to acknowledge the need of employees to feel valued. According to the Gallup findings valued employees are more able to perform consistently on the four critical outcomes of workplace quality: employee retention, customer metrics, productivity, and profitability.
Recently a CEO shared about a janitor who was instrumental in a positive outcome involving one of his picky counterparts. The janitor was pleasantly surprised to learn about the importance of his job when the new CEO complimented him on the shiny marble floor entrance that gave him an impeccable first impression of the company when he was meeting about the position. This CEO acknowledges that this janitor is adding to the internal stock price of his company, because his contribution is valued by his organization.
I am aware of a small family business where the leadership passed through three generations, building up an internal pride among employees and a global customer base over the years of their quality product. When the grandson of the founder took over as the president recently, the average tenure of employees who gave their loyalty and energy to the company was well over 30 years. It is hard to hear how disillusioned and insignificant the same employees are feeling after a short while when they realized the new owner does not value his employees as his most important asset to the same extent as his father or grandfather. He also does not seem to care much about keeping the previous global customer base nor taking the measures to maintain their quality product. Employees are excluded from all significant decisions affecting their jobs while looking on helplessly to see ‘their’ company going down in front of their eyes, hoping some investor with a passion for their product may come to buy them out before it is too late.
When leaders in an organization hear and process employees’ ideas, they will feel valued for their contributions. Are you open to listen to the input of your new Generation Y employee on how you can implement a new idea into your business? In a few months you may be grateful when you experience results in the form of increased efficiency, innovation or new product development.