The Way We're Working Isn't Working

Treat employees well, make them feel more valued, and they will treat their customers well. Energy, after all, is contagious.

The irony is that our efforts at self-protection and self-preservation so often result in precisely what we’re seeking to avoid. We

Numerous studies show that the most inspiring leaders are consistently those who tune in to what others are feeling and listen to them with genuine interest and respect.

Also, because bad is stronger than good, we often instinctively tell negative stories.

More than a hundred studies have demonstrated some correlation between employee engagement and business performance.

The fight response to a feeling of insufficient value is to call attention to ourselves more aggressively. We see this in leaders who flaunt their power, hog credit for successes, blame others for failures, and brook no dissent. By contrast, humility is often a measure of a leader’s true confidence.

Expressing appreciation requires more conscious intention. Feeling appreciated is as important to us as food.

The second key to fueling purpose is putting what you love to do and what you do best into the service of something beyond your immediate self-interest.

Gallup has uncovered twelve key factors that produce high engagement, productivity, and retention among employees. Fully half of them are connected to the issue of feeling valued—including receiving regular recognition or praise for doing good work, having a supervisor or someone at work who “cares about me as a person,” “having a best friend at wo