People. Productivity. Prosperity.

When thinking about the words that best describe the essence of my human resource consulting practice, I noticed a trend with the letter "P".

Here is what these words mean to me, and why they can be important to you:

Engage Your People

Motivating and engaging your workforce will be the toughest job you have as a leader in your organization.  Psychology 101 - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs teaches us that everybody is motivated and engaged for different reasons.  People will support a process if they can help build it.  It is important to let people in, and own the process with you.  A motivated employee, if knocked down, will get back up again after discouragement or set-back.  This means it is crucial to celebrate everyone’s efforts when they are moving forward regardless of how big or small the accomplishment.  

Being engaged also means that accountability is important.  Communicating your expectations to employees helps them understand when they are doing well, and identify where they may be struggling.  It also helps them understand their progress in reaching those expectations. This is how working relationships can be improved. 

The tough part about understanding people is performance is that some people fit, and some do not.  You will have to decide if performance is skill based (provide coaching or training) or discipline based (going against the core values of your company) and act on it.    

Improve Productivity  

There is still more to the equation of a harmonious workplace than engaging your people - it is productivity.  Workplace cultures and leadership need to recognize each employee’s workloads, pressure to meet deadlines, time management skills, and the fact that they’re not just an employee - there is life outside of work you know!  Recognizing when employees need downtime to succeed and be productive in all the roles that they play in their life can be challenging for managers.  

Other contributing factors that improve workplace productivity includes leading by example, setting goals, and communicating expectations to employees all-the-time in order to build trust - the “golden nugget” to successful working relationships.    

Achieve Business Prosperity

As a business owner, you’ve learned what engages your people, you've got this productivity thing running on a constant, and now what does this say about the prosperity of your business?  Everything!  

The word “Prosperity” is crucial from a senior executive perspective - I want my business to survive through good times and bad.  People are one part of the equation to include in the overall formula for business prosperity.  You want to achieve all of these things with the right people who can get you there.  If they are the right people, they will be involved in the process, support it, and keeping working to do better all over again.  Your business life extends, creates continuity and lifelong learning for those who are engaged, which in effect breaths a longer life into your business.