The employees at the beginning need to obtain more from their work itself, from their leaders, and from the organization. They hope that the value of their work is reflected; they hope to be recognized, they want to get opportunities to show themselves, and they need jobs that can fully utilize their abilities and develop their potential.
At the same time, organizations are also looking for various ways to stimulate the potential of employees. These organizations consider the potential of employees as a crucial capital for maintaining competitive advantages. The key issue is how to unlock the potential of employees. It's like having a powerful engine in your car, but it's constrained by the brakes and cannot unleash its power. What will happen when you release the brakes? Your car will inevitably accelerate. This is the problem that many organizations face today. Their employees have enormous energy, but they cannot fully utilize this energy because they haven't yet found the way to release the brakes.
For an organization to grow, it cannot let this potential lie dormant forever. In today's global competition, capital becomes scarcer, while customer demands increase day by day. You have to run at full speed just to avoid being kicked out. This means that leaders must pay extra attention to the needs of employees, respond flexibly, and create a good working environment to meet their needs as much as possible.
What do employees actually need?
The latest survey "Employee Passion: The New Law of Work Motivation" shows that employees have eight needs that must receive sufficient attention from their leaders so that employees can perform optimally. If leaders fail to focus on these needs—even ignoring just one of them—they will inadvertently "brake" the forward progress of the organization's growth.
1. Meaning of work: Employees need to see the meaning and value of their work and whether it connects with the organization’s and larger goals. Employees need to understand how their work ties into the overall vision, what the organizational culture signifies, and where the company's values lie.
2. Collaborative atmosphere: Employees want to work in an inspiring environment, collaborating with other employees to achieve success.
3. Fairness: Employees are willing to work for fair and equitable employers. Whether it comes to salary, benefits, or workload, everything should be fair and balanced, with mutual respect among employees. Employees expect the organization and leaders to treat them and clients with the same fairness and equity. In fact, studies show that the biggest reason for employee turnover is feeling they haven’t been treated fairly and equitably.
4. Autonomy: Employees want to independently accomplish their tasks. They wish to have enough ability and information to participate in decision-making regarding their work.
5. Recognition: Employees need praise and acknowledgment of their contributions.
6. Growth: Having opportunities to learn, grow, and develop skills to achieve career growth is also a key need for employees. Moreover, employees need to feel they are part of the process in their career development plans.
7. Relationship with leaders: Employees want leaders to share information with them and build good partnership relationships. Establishing strong partnerships with employees based on honesty and trust creates a harmonious working atmosphere, making employees willing to do better work.
8. Relationship with colleagues: Just like the relationship with leaders mentioned above, good relationships with colleagues will also motivate employees to work harder.
The new reality requires leaders to go all out to attract and retain highly motivated, high-capacity excellent employees. Salary is no longer the only attraction. Today's employees need more. They evaluate the workplace environment, checking if their contributions and expenditures are recognized, if they receive corresponding rewards, if they can participate or be authorized to complete work, if there are opportunities to exercise and enhance skills, if there are chances for growth, and if they can influence the outcome.
This is why the definition of leadership needs to be redefined. The old command-control style of leadership that only cares about short-term results has become outdated. Today's leadership takes a more participatory form, focusing on long-term growth effects and employee satisfaction.
Many management practices used by organizations today will change. The reason is simple: most employees do not get what they need from the current management model, and this model is continuously lowering employee performance levels. If you want to create a new job for employees, make them more energetic, and help them grow continuously, then you need to consider these questions first:
How do you successfully motivate each member of the team?
What specific things can you do to motivate team members and organizational employees to make them more efficient?
How is your relationship with team members? Do you care about them on both personal and professional levels?
How do you encourage the growth of surrounding employees?
Today, the best leaders provide employees with an excellent working environment, allowing them to leverage their strengths, have learning opportunities, and share talents. Employees no longer want to work for leaders who only know how to give orders and evaluate performance; they prefer leaders who can educate, support, and help them achieve their goals.
Great leaders—those with higher levels of leadership—focus on both work outcomes and work relationships. They believe both elements are key to long-term growth and must be balanced. However, for a long time, many leaders have thought they had to choose one. Organizations that want to grow continuously in the future need leaders who not only view employees as a significant asset of the company—they represent the company!