What’s Your People Strategy?

The competitive advantage at work isn’t what you think. 

Especially the way our society tends to view it. 

It is a belief in our culture that the most effective leaders are hard hitting, bottom-liners who are masters at task and execution. 

You know them. Their leadership style is focused on results and data and they can be genius at achieving them.

People aspire to this type of leadership because of the way it’s idolized in our culture. 

And clearly, these skills matter. 

The problem though is that we’ve built companies around task masters without considering the second part of the equation, which depending on where you sit, is arguably more important. 

We’re talking about people.

We prioritize business strategies. But what about people strategies?

Most leaders rely on hope here. It sounds like this…”If I write a good job description and do my best to hire well, it’ll work out.” 

Sometimes it works. More often it doesn’t. 

Most people aren’t complaining about their tasks, they’re complaining about their people.

You need a strategy.

Being strategic about your people means understanding them relationally and professionally. 

• What motivates them?
• How do they like to communicate? 
• How do they like to be communicated with? 
• What makes them tune in? 
• What makes them tune out?

It’s truly the formula for engagement, that thing both leaders and employees are ultimately striving for. 

Engagement is fueled when teams are connected.

And when you begin to uncover the science and art of leadership styles, you begin to create a more high-performing team. High performing teams have fewer misunderstandings, made-up stories, and assumptions. In essence, they have less drama…which we know is not productive.

So, why this topic now?

On a group call last week, we were helping leaders discover the impact of their leadership style on themselves and the team members around them. Light bulbs were going off as they began to see why certain working relationships were so much harder than others. 

It had everything to do with communication styles and motivations, and how much their own style differed from the others they were struggling to influence. This was dramatically impacting their entire experience and impact at work.

They all began getting really curious about how leadership styles were so critical to understand, and why these conversations were left out of strategies for growth.

With curiosity, insight will follow.

It leads me to this point: If leaders had a better understanding of their PEOPLE – not just the title people carried – they would be more strategic and have better results.

How might your world change if you had a better understanding of your people? What motivated them and how they liked to be communicated with? 

You probably think you know. I’m almost positive you don’t, but there is a solution. 

This is how you kick off your people strategy.

It’s a life-changing conversation for every single one of us. And I never stop learning something new about myself and the people around me when I’m willing to engage in it. 

Today I’m inviting you to take a small step toward your people strategy with the following questions we shared above:

• What motivates them?
• How do they like to communicate? 
• How do they like to be communicated with? 
• What makes them tune in? 
• What makes them tune out?

Want an additional tool? 

You. 

YOU stand in the in-between of their feedback and any shifts that can be made toward better people strategy.

So, as you listen, with curiosity, ask yourself this: What can I change to lead them better? 

This is simple, but it’s not easy.

AND – if you’ve read this far, I know you care. Use that care to practice this week – someone will notice. You might, too.