It's Valentine's Day, and love is in the air! What does that have to do with business?
A LOT!
The heartbeat of every business is its WHY -- its reason for existence, its mission, its purpose.
When a company is truly in love with its reason for being in business, magic happens! Customers buy its products and services. Employees engage with the mission and are exceptionally productive in their work.
It takes a concerted effort from a company's leadership to maintain its WHY and the magic that brought its initial momentum.
There are several ways to maintain and rekindle the love for your business:
Continually review, renew, and recommit to your core values. Regularly focusing on your values is an investment in your culture and way of doing business that pays massive dividends.
Measure and report the positive impact of your company's mission. Quantifying and communicating your positive impact motivates your team and engages your customers.
Empower your team to volunteer in your community. You're living your WHY and reinforcing your values by organizing your team to give back together or supporting them to volunteer individually. A terrific recent example is Orange County Certified B Corp, OluKai, shutting down its operations for a morning to support Second Harvest Food Bank. Need help organizing a company volunteer effort? Check out OneOC.org!
Align compensation and bonuses to mission-related KPIs. Think outside the box of only rewarding people for financial metrics. Find creative ways to reward your team financially for moving the needle on roles that contribute to the love and WHY of your company.
Reconnect with your founding story. As your business matures, it's easy to forget where you started and came from. Watch and read your earliest company videos, e-newsletters, marketing materials, and features in the news.
Now zoom out. Relate those five areas to your personal life. Connecting on values, volunteering together, measuring positive impact, rewarding impactful behaviors, and reconnecting with our roots apply to both our personal and professional lives.
The most important relationship in my life is with my wife, Kady. She is my #1. Everything else for me flows from our relationship, and I love her deeply.
Each of us is the leader of our own life. We get more of what we focus on. The more we focus on love in our work and personal life, the more love we get.
Did this spark something in you? Email me back with your thoughts!
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