You may have a great team at your organization. But is everyone on the same page when it comes to their goals and chosen focus? In a world-wide survey, The Economist found that 64% of business executives chose “achieving excellence” as their primary goal.
However, employee respondents gave different results, citing “passion”, “meaning”, and “purpose” as their highest career pursuits. Clearly, there is a gulf between the goals of employees and their bosses at many businesses. Without agreeing on the purpose of business, employees and executives won’t be able to work toward a common goal.
This will lead to lots of problems as both the employer and employee will be going in opposite directions to achieve their primary goals. While the employer is striving for excellence, the employee will be looking for a deeper meaning in all that they do.
Because of this, it is important for businesses to make it a point to understand what drives their employees and at the same time, make it known to the employee what the goal of the business as a whole it.
When doing this, it is important to stress that neither of the goals – the employee’s or the employer’s – are more important than the other and that both can be achieved. In order to do this those, both parties have to work together to find ways and strategies that allow them to reach their goals together.
Citing the survey results from above, a business can achieve excellence at the same time an employee is searching or meaning or purpose in their career. For example, in the financial services industry, the employee can make sure to take extra care of customers needs and help grow and nurture a relationship. The result of this will be that the employee feels a purpose to her job by helping those that she cares about. At the same time, the business will achieve its goal of excellence because the stronger the relationship the client has with the firm, the more likely it is that they will remain not only a long-term client, but it also opens the door for the potential of referring new clients. Thus, excellence in servicing clients is achieved and all involved parties are happy.
In this pursuit, Empowering Business is a micro site offered by The Economist Group. It’s sponsored by Microsoft Cloud, offering actionable insights to the most common professional challenges in today’s world. Career advancement, entrepreneurship, negotiation, and time management are all addressed. The Economist’s team of experts also shows how to improve company culture, shows how to create a startup, imparts teambuilding wisdom, and much more. This is a must for executives, and will be of interest to their employees as well.
Finding common ground for employers and employees doesn’t have to be a difficult experience. With the help of the above insights, a business can hit the ground running, ensuring less wasted time and a smoother path towards reaching the goals of both the employee and the employer.