Part five of my series of ten blogs using films to illustrate the feelings organisations should seek to evoke in employees to create a high performance culture….
Number 5 – Valued
People want to know that they are valued, in every element of their life. They want to know that people value their relationship with them. At home they want to know they are loved by their partner and members of their family. Socially they want to know that they are respected by friends and acquantainces. As a customer, they want to feel that their supplier doesn’t take them for granted. And at work they want to know that their employer considers them to be important – for the contribution they make to the organisation and for who they are as an individual.
When the organisation recognises and rewards them people feel valued and appreciated. They feel respected and their levels of confidence and self esteem are higher. And as Abraham Maslow suggested, they move up the hierarchy of needs. As they receive respect from others their self respect and self esteem grows too and they move towards self actualisation where they can realise their full potential, for the benefit of the organisation. They become willing to give more effort and commit themselves more fully to its purpose, providing of course it’s one they consider ecological (see Part 2 of this series for an explanation). The problem is that it’s hard to know what to do to ensure people feel valued, but it is what the best managers do to get the best from their people. They know that their investment in making people feel valued pays dividends in terms of its return.
The film I’ve chosen to illustrate the benefits that come from feeling valued is "The Blind Side", the story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American boy from a broken home who is taken in the Tuohys, a well-off white family. They put a roof over his head, and so much more. They provide him with love and support and as a result of feeling valued by them, he values himself. As an American football player and as a student, he works hard and with the help and support of those around him becomes an All-American left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. It’s a true story and in interviews that I’ve seen with the ‘real’ Tuohys, they also talk about how much they benefited from Michael’s presence in their lives too.
The film really illustrates the power of being loved and feeling valued. See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ3kwMq18-8
Part 6 tomorrow!
