APPEAL TO COMMON IDEALS
In every personal-best case, leaders talked about ideals. They expressed a desire to make dramatic changes in the business-as-usual environ- ment. They reached for something grand, something magnificent, something that had never been done before.
Visions are about ideals. They’re about hopes, dreams, and aspi- rations. They’re about the strong desire to achieve something great. They’re ambitious. They’re expressions of optimism. Can you imagine a leader enlisting others in a cause by saying, “I’d like you to join me in doing the ordinary”? Not likely. Visions stretch people to imagine exciting possibilities, breakthrough technologies, and revo- lutionary social change.
Ideals reveal higher-order value preferences. They represent the ultimate economic, technological, political, social, and aesthetic pri- orities. The ideals of world peace, freedom, justice, an exciting life, happiness, and self-respect, for example, are among the ultimate strivings of human existence. They’re outcomes of the larger purpose that practical actions will enable people to attain over the long term. By focusing on ideals, people gain a sense of meaning and purpose from what they undertake.
When you communicate your vision of the future to your con- stituents, you need to talk about how they’re going to make a dif- ference in the world, how they’re going to have a positive impact on people and events. You need to show them how their long-term interests can be realized by enlisting in a common vision. You need
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to speak to the higher meaning and purpose of work. You need to describe a compelling image of what the future could be like when people join together in a common cause.
Connect to What’s Meaningful to Others
Exemplary leaders don’t impose their visions of the future on people; they liberate the vision that’s already stirring in their constituents. They awaken dreams, breathe life into them, and arouse the belief that people can achieve something grand. When they communicate a shared vision, they bring these ideals into the conversation. What truly pulls people forward, especially in more difficult and volatile times, is the exciting possibility that what they are doing can make a profound difference in the lives of their families, friends, col- leagues, customers, and communities. They want to know that what they do matters.3 Nancy Sullivan, vice president for disability ben- efits at the Trustmark Companies, told us, “When you know what road you should be on and are doing exactly what you should be doing, you fulfill your life purpose, personal passions, and heart’s desire. When your life and career are on course and you understand your purpose, you feel full, satisfied, and ever so powerful. Nothing will stop you.”
Nancy’s passion for the work her division does is quite evident in these words, and she needed to draw on that energy when her group was notified that they were unlikely to meet their division objectives after consistently exceeding them for nine straight years. Nancy knew that her team could pull through, but for them to do so, she needed to connect her constituents to more than just the division plan. She needed to paint a bigger picture of what they could accomplish together and show them
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G E how their long-term interests could be realized by enlisting in a
common vision. Nancy developed a four-page vision message and posted it in
the office kitchen where everyone congregated. In team meetings, division meetings, one-on-ones, and chats in the hallway, she spoke with genuine conviction about the meaning and purpose of their work and pointed out specific parts of her vision message that would help them see themselves as she saw them—as the best of the best. It was not only a message about what they could achieve in business but also a connection to the significant role they played in the lives of all their constituents. Here is part of that message:
I dream of a place here in our office, where the sales team maintains respect and confidence in our decisions not just today but tomorrow and always; the constant challenges to our decisions just don’t exist. Where our insureds trust our decisions and feel our genuine commitment to serving them well in their greatest time of need. Where our customers have confidence that your decision was contractual yes, but more importantly ethically correct and sound. Where the only title that you can think of for introducing your co-worker is respected colleague and friend.
I dream of a place where growth and opportunities are massive because of the time and energy you invested with your commitments and therefore our opportunities and potential are endless. A place that no longer manages claims, but manages decisions on disability. A place that is no longer thought of as disability-claim experts, but disability experts. A place where our colleagues and government officials look to for disability solutions. A place where Trustmark is the number one company to serve as the assistance to all disability needs.
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And day in, day out, Nancy stressed the exciting possibilities the future held: “Imagine your own career ten years out, and dream of a position that serves you well. Create ideas that get you there. Look within for strengths that you didn’t even know you had. Look beyond any possibilities. Stretch yourself with ideas that seem unachievable. If the thoughts are laughable, then that is exactly what we are looking for. Create your own position. Create our future.”
In time, all of Nancy’s staff connected with those ideals and aspirations and united around their division objectives. Each member of the team could easily see how he or she would answer a friend’s question, “So, why do you work there?” Nancy’s message had lifted them up from the mechanics of disability claims and reminded them of the nobility of what they accomplish. Nancy’s focus on the purpose and meaning of the division’s work engaged their spirits and enabled them to surpass their targets for the tenth year in a row.
The outcomes Nancy’s staff experienced are quite consistent with the extensive research on employee engagement. Michael Burchell and Jennifer Robin of the Great Places to Work Institute, for example, report that “when we ask employees in great workplaces to describe what it is like to work there, they begin to smile and talk about how they are excited to get to work, and then, at the end of the day, are surprised to discover that the day has already disap- peared. . . . They share their belief that what they do matters in the organization—that their team or the organization would be less suc- cessful if it weren’t for their efforts.”4 This is what Nancy accom- plished at Trustmark. You have to make sure that the people on your team know that their work does, in fact, matter.
Leaders help people see that what they are doing is bigger than they are and bigger, even, than the business. Their work can be
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G E something noble. When people go to bed at night, they can sleep a
little easier knowing that others are able to live a better life because of what they did that day.