How to More Effectively and Authentically Respond

Alan Seale: transformation catalyst, leadership coach, and author at the Center for Transformational Presence.

At Forward Thinking Workplaces, we are discovering the people, insights, and strategies that lead to Forward Thinking minds, leaders, and workplaces of the future — today!‌

How can we create workplaces where more voices matter, people thrive and find meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

Alan Seale: The first answer that comes to me is you just do it! We think we have to have all these models, special approaches. Just do it! Just decide this is what we're doing!

It's about simply making it clear, "You know what, in our workplace, everybody matters." Invite people into that conversation and just make that choice. You don't need a big model or sophisticated thing or need to hire some expensive consulting firm to help you do that.

Just decide and do it. Why make this so hard? Just do it.

What does it take to get an employee's full attention and best performance?

Alan: Find out what they care about and then make sure they're doing something within the company that they care about. There needs to be a connection between the individual's life purpose—I call it soul mission—and the business or organization's soul mission or purpose.

There can be layers of this, of course. Is the organization genuinely operating in integrity with itself and its mission? Are they acting in a way that's congruent with who they say they are and what's important to them? And if they are, then find the connection between that employee's mission and the company's mission. Create an environment where the employee feels like, "Wow, when I come to work every day, I get to live my purpose. I get to be who I fully am and do what I'm here to do in this world by working for this company."

What if creating these kinds of workplaces is simply a choice, and you go for it? If not everybody in the company is on board with that, that's OK. The people will fall away who need to fall away for whatever reason. But align the company with its own soul mission or purpose and make sure that your employees or company colleagues feel like they can live their own soul missions at work. It might take some time for this to open out through the organization, but it can happen if you make a choice and move with conscious intention in that direction.

Note: This is a preview of the full interview. The complete interview was selected by Apress for publication and continues in The Future of the Workplace.