Strategy #9: Invest in people’s personal success and happiness

In his book Love and Profit, James A. Autry wrote that asking how you can balance your work life and your personal life is asking the wrong question; the right question is asking how you can integrate those two aspects of your life. When people are struggling at home, they will almost certainly be struggling at work. Anything you can do to help people with those personal life struggles will not only help them perform more effectively on the job, it will also help to cement their loyalty to the organization.

For example, the average American family has about $9,000 in credit card debt, and some are a car accident or medical emergency away from financial catastrophe. A small proportion of Americans have adequately saved for retirement, although almost everyone somehow finds the cash with which to pay the monthly cable bill. Chances are, it’s going to get worse when taxes and interest rates go up, as they inevitably will. Anything you can do to help people be more fiscally responsible, and to do a better job of managing their finances, is likely to be rewarded with enhanced long-term loyalty.

A great idea: Select a good book on personal finance (by good book, I mean one that has a powerful tough love message) and give copies to your employees. You might, for example, decide upon The Total Money Makeover (which has a companion workbook) by David Ramsey. Tell people that you’re concerned about their financial futures, and you want to help them control their own destinies. That’s why you’re giving them the book. To encourage them to use it, you might also establish a money management support group that interested employees can participate in, on their own time.

Here’s another great idea:  Ask the people who work in your organization what their most pressing problems are. Then organize and formally sponsor a network of support groups dealing with those topics that are completely voluntary. It’s a great way to show people that you really care for them as people and not just hands on the job. And to the extent that participating in relevant support group activities helps your people more effectively deal with personal, family, financial, and health issues, they will be more productive on the job. A real win-win.

“It is not the systems, structures, and rules that really convey distrust, it is their enforcement by managers that does the damage.  It’s the old story of managers who fancy that their job is police work rather than missionary work… You as a manager must trust your employees to do their work. You must trust them almost beyond reason. You must take them at face value and let them know you believe what they say and you believe they will do what they say they’ll do.”

James A. Autry: Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership

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