You are an innovator with a beautiful idea. You have a plan to turn that beautiful idea into a business. Now all you need is a team. So, how do you get the best people? How can you ever afford them??
Money is not the only thing you have to offer your future team. People are motivated by much more than the size of their salaries. Daniel Pink’s TED talk makes that case VERY clearly. Pink says that rewards (monetary or otherwise) narrow the mind’s focus, so they really only work on the simplest of problems – routine, left-brain work. For anything more complex, creative or conceptual, monetary rewards can actually be destructive. Watch the talk, see the data. It’s pretty amazing.
What does Pink’s fantastic book Drive say about what motivates people addressing complex problems? He says we actually want these three things:
- Autonomy – the urge to direct our own lives
- Mastery – the desire to get better and better at something that matters
- Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves
If you can become a great evangelist for your vision and your company, you can draw the right people in build a beautiful shared sense of purpose that will become a powerful engine for growth.
If you communicate your strategy and objectives clearly, your team can thrive autonomously. If everyone knows where the sailboat is supposed to go, each person can handle their part of the rigging without intervention from you. This is the only way to actually scale your business.
And if your people are being micro-managed less, maybe they’ll have time and feel the freedom to invest in developing mastery in the skills that matter most to them. Which will make them happy to work with you. And they’ll stay.
My point, in case it isn’t clear enough, is that to create an environment of autonomy, mastery and purpose you must communicate beautifully. Learn to do this and you can create a great team and a great business!
Communication is the essential last mile in finding and motivating the right teams, acquiring strong allies, powerfully bonding with customers, and capturing mindshare with compelling stories. Nothing will serve you and your vision better than developing exceptional communication skills.
