Helping your employees find their big “why” can also help you communicate your company’s “why”. It’s a conversation that you’ll find fruitful in managing, supporting and leading your team. If they understand their “why”, then you can communicate better what the company’s “why” is, thus connecting the two of those together. When people get clear about their “why”, they gain confidence. They get committed to the task. They have a sense of courage that takes them to a new level of performance.

Finding the “why” of your employees is critically important in order for you to get the most leverage out of their talent and ability as they help you build your company — whether you have 10 or 10,000 employees. You need to help them identify their why and then connect it back to their job or work. This is an ecosystem that can provide you with long-term internally motivated employees by finding their why.

Ask them these questions:

• Why are they working at your company?
• Why are they doing the work that they’re doing?
• What is the purpose of their job?
• Are they clear about it being a vehicle for them to achieve the things that they want to achieve in their life?

Have you helped them draw the connection between their job and and their big “why”?

This is an area where you have to start asking questions — even in the interview process when you’re on boarding somebody. Why are you here? How do you see this as a fit? How does this fit into your life? How does this fit into the big “why” of your life? And then, support them in what they tell you.

So “why” is a great question. It’s simple but it can dramatically improve your employee engagement with all your employees. 

Everybody’s looking for an edge in business – and one such advantage is finding the “why” of your employees, your team, your managers, and your leadership. When you can do that and connect the “why” for them personally with the “why” for the company, then you’ve got something! That is what we call an unfair advantage in the marketplace because your people are internally motivated with the big “why”. This is the secret sauce of your advantage. 

We look forward to hearing what you’re finding when you’re asking “why” questions. Let us know because we’d love to talk to you about it.