Fear permeates many corporate cultures today. Employees often play out the worst case scenario in their heads for every interaction.
My project won’t be good enough. My evaluation is going to suck. My efforts won’t be noticed. My job performance isn’t on par. The game goes on infinitely.
At the root of it all though is a simple question that likely isn’t ever verbalized, “Do I matter?”
Do I matter to this team? Do I matter to my boss? Do I matter to my clients?
As leaders, if our teams don’t know that they matter (in real, specific and written ways), we will not only lose productive work time while they play out fear-based fantasies in their heads, we will also likely lose them altogether.
Maybe not today or tomorrow, but over the long run, our teams want to be at a place where they don’t have to wonder whether or not they matter.
They’re not just a head count, they’re human. Tell them they matter.
