Engaged and Enabled

As a leader, how does keeping a team focused, inspired, and empowered differ in the various kinds of organizations that you're a part of?

You know, that's one thing that I would say doesn't really change. I mean people certainly have their own idea, their own vision of what they want to accomplish with their career. And so to the degree that you can engage them on that so that the organization's vision incorporates their own personal vision, I think you keep people engaged and enabled, they feel like they have some sense of ownership and responsibility, and they're passionate about and get their passion into it, and so I think that's important. But ultimately it comes down to do they like the work? And so recruit people that enjoy the work that you have as a part of your mandate, are they properly incented, right? Do they have the right compensation package? Do they have the right recognition and reward that's available when they achieve? And then being alongside them, to help them achieve their job, I think many managers don't take that part as seriously as I would like. I look back on my career and many times when the going got tough, sometimes the managers get going, right, and so you have to take responsibility for the employee. I view myself as a partner, kind of a servant leader, where I'm alongside them to help them achieve their goal because I acknowledge that we're not going to achieve our overall goal if each individual doesn't feel like they have the ability to achieve their goal. And so I take that part very seriously, I think that's important. And I can say all three of those criteria are exactly the same no matter whether you're working at a startup or whether you're working in a large company, those are just core principles to getting the most out of your people and helping them achieve.