Last year I posted a few times on my RLRJ matrix. The successful organizations ahead will load people with Responsibility, Learning, Recognition and Joy, in equal parts every day. People who get ahead give and demand these factors. In 2015, I’ll look to build out the equation as one part of my new role as Head Coach Publicis Groupe.
The formula applies as much to life as to work; it fits with my philosophy of work / life integration. Most companies have a long way to go in filling the four buckets of the matrix. Here are a couple of recent discussions I spotted, worth a look, that touch on the profound range of the four quotients.
Tony Schwartz of The Energy Project drafts an Employee Bill of Rights and blueprint for attracting and retaining the best people:
- Pay every employee a living wage
- Encourage employees to regularly renew themselves
- Give employees the opportunity to have a full life outside of work
- Make each employee feel valued, valuable and appreciated
- Treat all employees like adults
- Be transparent about nearly everything
- Provide employees with opportunities to learn, grow and develop
- Define and pursue a higher purpose that makes employees proud.
On the joy side from a team member perspective, Laura Brounstein at Cosmopolitan Magazine shares with Business Insider eight easy ways for making work more fun:
- Create “happiness-boosting traditions” with co-workers
- Get up and walk around
- Make your workspace a place you enjoy being
- Laugh
- Compliment someone every day
- Check in with you colleagues and your network
- Be appreciative
- Create or join an office team or club
I always say the further up a company you go, the more stupid you become. The job at the top is not to manage people but to coach winners, to lead by creating leaders whose job it is to make the decisions. That’s about inspiration, about coaching people not ‘employees’ to be the best they can be. And RLRJ is at the heart of it. I often look to ESPN Coach of the Century Vince Lombardi who turned around the Green Bay Packers. He used football to teach life.
