It’s a fast world. Especially here in Silicon Valley; people simply cannot afford to care. The immediate burden sometimes is just too high to look for a more permanent solution. In the world of scaling fast and large, survival or rampant greed are more pervasive than caring.
Yet the notion of care is a must in a healthy society. When the future seems bleak and the situation seems helpless, it’s best to focus on simple tasks that can be done today. That opens up possibilities, frees the mind to focus on the positive letting greater solutions in. It’s human to care. A happy life and a strong business are built on this basic notion. Not on short term transactional thinking, which is exhausting and not sustainable at all.
What is sustainable is to demonstrate some level of care and likely be cared back. This is a very reassuring strategy, to simply anticipate the needs of the customer, listen and talk with an employee, not talk at an employee, listen and try to see something unique about people. This works every time. In business the economics of caring are staggering. Understanding and appreciating an employee or a contractor has a huge return on the investment over time, especially when multiplied by the number of people in an organization.
Finding the people who truly care about what they do is key. A quick example goes something like this: Two masons are asked what they were doing. One said he was laying bricks to make a living, the other said he was building a church. The difference in quality of the finished product will be obvious. Caring is a two way street, but when employees are the type of people who generally care about what they do, and the business cares back, magic happens.
Leave a Reply