In Bridges to Leadership, Avery Bang shared with us how engineering, specifically bridges, can impact human lives. Her organization, Bridges to Prosperity, was founded on the principle of essentially making human lives easier by connecting 2 physical areas together. They see the human need in these situations and work to solve for it in a very simple way.
The concept is simple – they see humanity at the center and build around it.
The same holds true for us too. If humanity is at the center of everything that we do, we have the ability to change the world around us.
Think about it. Instead of being focused on how many widgets you are selling or how urgent a deadline is, if we focused on making sure our team members were taken care of, motivated, comfortable both physically and emotionally, they would want to work harder and do more to get those widgets out the door or to meet that deadline or whatever the pressing matter is at hand.
By meeting our core human needs and ensuring that the human is the central focus, we will exponentially improve their lives and impact people in a meaningful way.
So, ask yourself, what does my team really need to be successful? Who are they at their core? What makes them tick? What drives them? How can I support them (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually)? Focus a little bit more on meeting their human needs and you’ll see improvements in morale, engagement, productivity, reduction in turnover, etc.
A little bit of humanity can go a long, long way.
Thanks Avery Bang for the inspiration.