Culture & Self Esteem Part 2

If people draw the majority of their self-esteem from their job, then you have a responsibility to build a culture that allows them to do so—a culture of nurturing, praising and accountability. If your people are going to serve the customer the way you want them to, they need to feel good about themselves when they do it.

A few years ago, a company by the name of Performance Group Inc. in Dallas, Texas did a survey of 1,000 people who had just changed jobs. They asked these people to tell them why they left their last position. Guess what the number one answer was?

If you are being honest, you probably said money, as did we at first. But the overwhelming answer was “lack of recognition.” What were these people saying? They were saying they worked in a culture that did not value them and did nothing for their self-esteem, so they left.

Think about yourself. You might be working a position now that pays less than the last one you held. Why did you do this? The same reason these people in the survey did. You want to work for a place that allows you to come home to your family and be proud of what you do and who you do it for.

The person is always more important than the position. Remember that!

This pattern started when you were a little kid. You wanted be an astronaut or a fireman or a ballerina – you wanted to be someone important and what made them important was what they did for a living. Make what your company and its employees do for a living the most important job in the world. There are no small parts, just small actors.

The real resolution is for a person to learn NOT to draw their self-esteem from their job. Culture change is an odds game. You must play the odds or percentages sometimes. We talk abut this to help you understand the basis for many of the things that we suggest. A service culture must be a self-esteem-enhancing machine. Every policy, every award, every process you put into place will impact the self-esteem of your employees.

As you try to capture the hearts and heads of your employees, you will find that the main reason you only get their hands and feet can be traced to the regard they hold of themselves. You have adults who have spent their lives being programmed to settle for less than what they are worth and for less than they can achieve. And more importantly for you, less than what they can deliver!