How Great Leaders Build Great Organizations

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As a leader, you don’t have a company without your people. If you want to build a great company, you must put your people first.

If your people are not happy with you, they are not going to invest in you.

If they are not happy with you, they are not going to bring their best selves to work.

And if they are not happy with you, they are not going to be happy with your customers.

Without your customers, your people, as leader, you have nothing.

According to Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich, ‘Employees who are competent but not committed will not perform to their full potential.’

‘Commitment comes from building an employee value proposition that engages employees to use their discretionary energy to pursue organization goals.’

Commitment or engagement grows when we work in a company with a vision, have opportunities to learn and grow, do work that has an impact, receive fair pay for work done, work with people we like working with, and enjoy flexibility in the terms and conditions of work.’

‘Great leaders understand that the search for meaning that builds abundance is grounded in clarity about our truest individual and organizational values and how they align. ‘

‘As a leader, you create a more abundant organization when you help employees clarify their personal identity and enhance their signature strengths and then help them see how those strengths fit with the goals and values of the organization.’

‘Leaders can serve the important function of holding up a metaphorical mirror to help employees see how their behaviors are perceived by others.’

‘Leaders may also help employees ascertain their identity by asking them to complete a time log and analyze the results.’

‘When we act outside of our comfort zone, we may learn hidden strengths we did not know we had.’

As a leader, you might ask your employees to share their perceptions of their strengths, describe times when they demonstrated their strengths, and explore how their strengths might be used to help others (including coworkers and customers).’

As a leader, you meld organization and personal identities by hiring, training, and compensating employees whose personal identity melds with the identity of the organization or its subparts.’

Source:

Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich (2010). The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win.

Turning Rejections Around

…You are also allowed to be the rejecter and say no when something is posed as a great opportunity but just doesn’t feel right.’- Sam Jay

‘If you care enough about your work, you will be able to get past rejections.’– Alysia Reiner

‘When one door closes, another one opens.’- Alysia Reiner

‘It’s powerful to share experiences of rejection. … By sharing your vulnerability and your hardships, you give other people permission to do so as well. Then collectively, we’re able to kind of grow stronger together.’- Polly Rodriquez

‘After a rejection, you have to stop your own destructive narration, the looping story in which you tell yourself what just happened.’– Rachel Platten

‘Volunteering is one of the best possible ways to overcome a failure. because all of a sudden you’re not focused on what you don’t have. You’are focused on all that you can give.’- Rachel Platten

‘Treat your inner artist like a kindergartener in art class. Be gentle rather than critical.’- Rachel Platten

‘When you are trying to make a change, acknowledge that whatever the pushback, there is often validity in other people’s concerns.’- Marilyn Carlson Nelson

‘You know what would be bizzare? If you never failed and you never got rejected.’– Sarah Koenig

‘When you get rejected, you feel like you’re the only one to whom this has happened- but that’s not true. Failure happens to everyone.’- Angela Duckworth

Authenticity is all about staying true to your values, not to one particular communication style.’

Jessica Bacal (2021). The Rejection That Changed My Life: 25+ Women on Being Let Down, Turning It Around, and Burning It Up At Work