Although the company’s best interests is always in the minds of most of the employees, the underlying theme of the corporate world remains – ‘every man for himself’. So if an employee thinks what is in it for me, he isn’t wrong. After all, every company promises individual growth to the employees at the time of their joining. So in acting as free individuals looking after their self interest, the executives aren’t taking any undue advantage of their respective organization. As employees, they wish to forge a mutually profitable relationship with their organization since they understand that their today’s employer might turn out to be tomorrow’s partner or client.
Different employees have different self interests
As a leader, it is your responsibility to help your subordinates strike a perfect cord with the organization that would outlast their tenure in the organization. One thing that the leaders need to show here is flexibility. Usually, employee satisfaction has been a forte of the human resource departments and they ensured that all the employees are treated fairly and in the same manner. But this approach isn’t ideal when dealing with free individuals since their individual self interests might differ. While the mid aged executives may want to spend more time with their families, young employees might have some other ideas of incentives.
As a leader who is responsible for bringing out the best in his executives and looking after their self interests, you must have the freedom to offer individual benefits to your subordinates. This might need you to ask for special permissions from the company management, but it would give you a much better hold of your team’s fortunes.
The relationship between the company and the free individuals is based on honesty and not one-upmanship. Today’s executives are open about their needs and self interest. The company should be the same in its dealings with them. As their leader, you must keep the sweet talk aside and be straightforward with your subordinates. For those leaders who aren’t used to the straight talk, this can be a pain but this is the only way forward.