Increasing employee engagement, creating a healthier culture and
building a world-class organization that sees exceptional growth every
year is what all leaders in any industry wants for their organization.
If that is the goal for most leaders, then why do so few organizations
succeed at the above three?
There are a ton of reasons that may be
hindering an organizations success, but one key area that majority of
companies completely neglect or refuse to pay any attention to is their
employees’ personal dreams and desires.
Related: 10 Examples of Companies With Fantastic Cultures
I recently spent some time with
Infusionsoft
at their headquarters in Chandler, Arizona. You may have heard of them
already, but Infusionsoft is a complete sales and marketing automation
software for small businesses. I was completely blown away by their
positive and healthy culture, employees and everyone’s eagerness to
build the company to even greater success.
There are plenty of
people who deserve credit for the culture at Infusionsoft, especially
their CEO Clate Mask. What took me by surprise though was to find out
that they have someone on staff who is actually labeled as their dream
manager. Dan Ralphs, who is the dream manager at Infusionsoft, has one
job description -- to help the employees of the company achieve their
personal dreams.
One of the company’s employees a few years back had read
The Dream Manager by bestselling author
Matthew Kelly.
He loved the book so much that he desperately wanted to get it in the
hands of Clate Mask, the CEO of the company. Being an avid reader and
leader who is always looking to grow himself, Clate accepted the book
and read it on a flight. Once he was finished with the book, he
immediately knew that Infusionsoft was going to going to have a dream
manager on staff.
In the book, Kelly writes, “The future of your
organization and the potential of your employees are intertwined
-- their destinies are linked.” At Infusionsoft, you see this clearly,
as employees are actively engaged in the workplace while passionately
helping the organization build towards the grander vision while in
return, the organization is passionately helping employees work towards
their biggest personal dreams.
Related: 6 Reasons Why 'My Way or the Highway' Management Doesn't Work Anymore
When
talking to some of the employees at Infusionsoft, I would hear things
such as, “I ran my first marathon because of Infusionsoft” or “I am
almost out of debt because of Infusionsoft.” Hearing some of the
personal dreams that have been accomplished is truly astonishing.
Infusionsoft isn’t making miracles happen to make dreams come true for
their employees, but they do show them that they immensely care about
them as people and want to provide them with the resources and tools to
help them achieve some of their biggest dreams in life. In return,
they have employees who are extremely passionate about the company that
they work for and are actively engaged in the workplace.
“The
Dream Manager concept provides a revolutionary way of reversing this
crippling trend toward disengagement and demonstrates how organizations
large and small can actively engage their people once again, thus
creating a competitive advantage of monumental proportions," Kelly says.
You
might be asking, how exactly does the dream manager program work? At
Infusionsoft, every employee has the opportunity to meet with Dan
Ralphs, the company’s dream manager. He asks them to write down one
hundred dreams and eventually they pick one dream together and start to
develop a plan on how to accomplish it. From there they have follow up
meetings and track the progress of where everyone is at in relation to
achieving their dream for the year.
The absolute best way to
transform a company is to transform the people within that company.
Regardless of what industry you are in or how big or small your company
is, one of the best ways to engage your people, create a healthy
culture, and get everyone on board to work towards the organization's
grander vision is to care and help them achieve their personal dreams.
You
may come up with something completely different than what Infusionsoft
has adopted or what Mattew Kelly writes about in his book,
The Dream Manager,
but the one thing you can't ignore is constantly looking for ways to
grow and develop your people. After all, your company can only become as
great as the people within it.
