“You may be funny, smart and easy to dance with, but if you are not engaging employees on an ongoing basis, all of your work in developing a strategic plan will be for naught”.
Over the past few weeks, the Executive Leadership Team and the Board of Directors have been busy working on what is currently being called “Vision 2025” in preparation for the continuation of Bethany’s long term vision. In performing this work, I am wowed by the accomplishments of this organization since the establishment of Vision 2020 and very much look forward to the next steps in our journey together.
During the implementation process of any strategic plan (and stay tuned as we are still awhile away), the key to successfully having people fully commit to the plan is ensuring that they are informed, inspired, and engaged. Some thoughts…..
- Direction and focus is achieved at an organization when a company’s destination is clearly communicated.
- Determination and motivation is achieved when we explain to people why our destination is important.
- Engagement is key in encouraging people to be willing to make decisions to act in the best interests of the organization. This includes ensuring that the team knows how their individual roles interweave with the larger goals of Bethany in order to take pride in the importance of their work and do the best possible job in everything that they do.
With respect to the latter bullet, I recently read a book – Peter Stark’s Engaged! How Leaders Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come to Work. In his book, Mr. Stark defines employee engagement as a state in which, “employees are connected both at the head and the heart and they are willing to give what I call discretionary effort, meaning willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
It is very typical for not for profits to have high employee engagement. Not for profit employees are famous for their dedication to their personal and organizational goals, and that dedication is directly linked to the mission of the organization, and in our case “Creating Caring Communities”. Together, we are providing an invaluable benefit to society and our further strategic direction will lead us to ensure that we will continue to do so. After all, without a clear destination, we won’t know where we want to end up!
Of course, I welcome ideas, suggestions and any questions that you may have. Please feel free to send them to me at leanne.likness@bethanyseniors.com.
Have a great week everyone!
Yours truly,
– Leanne
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