People First – a recipe

In my talk at our People First Conference last week, I gave my take on a simple recipe for becoming a People First organisation:

1. Treat people as individuals

At the heart of People First is the premise that every employee wants exactly the same thing – to be treated as the unique human being that they are. And that starts with genuinely caring for them. The key word is genuine.

Anybody who’s run a business will know that managing people can be messy but if you go the extra mile for them, they will certainly do the same for you.

2. Communicate as adults

People are too often expected to work without knowing where the business is going, let alone understanding whether we as their leaders have the faintest idea how to get there.

The people who work for us want to know three things:

• Where are were going
• What’s expected of me
• How well are we doing

(Credit to Ian Windle for this gem.)

3. Give them engaging work to do

Good people are in demand and they too demand more from us as employers. They want the businesses they work for to have a purpose and the work they do to be worthwhile.

4. Reward them for the contribution they make

Reward is way more than just money. Yes, people need money to live but no amount of money will keep them at a job they hate. We need to find the right way to reward every individual in our organisations.

That’s it. As I said, its simple but I didn’t say it was easy!