People. They make up the beating heart and lifeblood of any business. Their drive to stay productive, motivated, and inspired turns into bottom lines and future ROIs in big, almost indefinable ways.
When Bobby Powers—the Head of Learning & Development and People Analytics at the legendary Gravity Payments—stepped into the Dog Eat Hog spotlight on February 20th, he unleashed his playbook. He noted that if you’re a challenger, you can’t win on money. You can’t win on economies of scale. You can’t win on resources. You must win with people. Here’s how…
5 Ways to Win with People:
#1: Hire people—not resumes. Potential is greater than past experience. Passion is greater than pedigree. Industrious is greater than Ivy League.
#2: Creators—not consumers. Empower people to help create the business they want to work for by sharing stories, and talking about your company as a living, changing thing.
#3: Be your own CEO. Offer up open trainings on leadership skills and ask questions in 1-on-1s about career interests. Create ad hoc task forces on employee-inspired initiatives and beyond.
#4: Plant seeds you will never harvest. Double your investment in onboarding, and offer diverse training opportunities.
#5: Turn ladder sideways. Management should not be the only growth opportunity and leadership shouldn’t be tied to a role or title. To do this effectively, you often need to change the way you talk about career growth.
Thanks to Bobby Powers for his power-packed insight. We’ll see you at the next thought-provoking Dog Eat Hog.