Insights on Strategic Workplaces

David J Paul Project Management Professional, Management Professor, Author and Small Business Manager

Beyond paying the bills, do you know WHY your employees come to work? Is it clear to you why some people WANT to work harder than others? Why are some people motivated? What is motivation? What inspires innovation and entrepreneurship? Why do people do anything, and how can you help create a work environment that genuinely inspires people to WANT to contribute to the organization’s sense of mission or purpose? Answering these questions for your workplace is a key to unlocking first rate performance.

We believe that people become more innovative, productive, and cost competitive if they experience: 1) work that genuinely “matters” to them, and 2) people (teammates, colleagues and bosses) who genuinely care for them. We call this “Doing Work that Matters for People who Care.” Does your company do this? Do you practice this approach to the workplace? You should. Done right, this is the essence of the strategic, intentional, systematic approach to a “Caring Strategy”. 

As a strategic manager, you have a strategic imperative of creating a culture of high mutual regard at work. Why? Because, feeling cared for is an antecedent to higher employee engagement. As a successful strategic managers in the post information age, you should strive to create both a competitive Business strategy (Work that Matters) and a caring strategy (For people who Care). This means a creative, competitive strategy that is implemented by motivated, prepared, and cared-for people!! Why? You can be sure that if you DON’T do this, your closest competitor WILL. 

You can get out in front of your competitor by asking your most engaged and enthusiastic mid-level manager to become a “C-Suite” executive. That’s right, your company needs to consider appointing a Chief Caring Officer, CCO. This is not an ombudsman or an HR additional duty. It’s the pro-active creating of the leadership necessary to create an environment of high mutual regard at work. By the way, as the Chief Executive Officer, you, personally, are the real CCO.

As Chief Caring Officer, you need to make this notion both believeable to and embraceable by rank and file managers. Talk totem about what exactly is implied or meant by caring in the workplace? What does it mean to young people to feel cared for? How are the different elements of caring at work linked to productivity and motivation—through what mechanisms? What are the keys to the perception of feeling cared for, valued, and connected in the work place? Early work on these questions will help you develop an approach to work that not only encompasses the elements of caring, but also engages people’s hearts and minds in a motivational atmosphere. You will soon discover that Respect, Regard, and Reward (but especially Regard) in the workplace encourage people to WANT to work, not merely to do the work.