What a Difference a Letter Makes
This Thought-of-The-Week entry is entitled What a Difference a Letter Makes. Let's begin with 2 words. Just 2 words. They are "Engaged" and "Enraged".
What a difference a letter makes.
If you are a Leader with an Engaged Workforce, you'll think, believe & feel "invincible" and on "top-of-the-world". You'll be assured & confident that your organization can do almost anything and succeed, with phenomenal results, high quality, deep & lasting impact.
On the other hand, if you are a Leader with an Enraged Workforce, not only will you be unsure of any success, quality, results or impact; ironically the only thing you'll be sure of is that your Leadership Journey will be fraught with anxiety, with start-stop scenarios, and with intentional & unintentional sabotages... In short, your Leadership Journey will be perilous, difficult, tricky, painful & risky.
Your Leadership talents & competencies remain the same, your Leadership Team remains the same, your Leadership Journey remains the same; the only difference being whether your workforce is engaged or enraged.
What a difference a letter makes.
There are significant & quantifiable differences between an engaged workforce and an enraged workforce. These differences account for much. They account for success or failure, whether the journey is smooth & pleasurable, or bruising & bumpy. They account whether the final destination is swiftly reached, arduously attained, or never accomplished.
Other than their organizations' top & bottom lines and cost & productivity levers, leaders need to pay attention to softer, "harder-to-define" intangibles like emotional well-being and whether their employees are feeling engaged, empowered, energized & entrepreneurial (I call these the 4Es).
Such softer, "harder-to-define" intangibles also apply to Craft of State, Art of Society, Science of Economy.
Leaders of nations, countries & communities need to pay heed to these softer, "harder-to-define" intangibles, in addition to the "traditionally analyzed & gone after" top & bottom lines, and cost & productivity levers. It's not just GNP, GDP, budget surpluses... economic progress & economic well-being. It's also (i) about avoiding emotional marginalization whilst enhancing emotional well-being, (ii) about raising the levels of engaged citizenry, (iii) about maximizing happiness for maximum number of people and (iv) about minimizing misery for maximum number of people. What a difference a letter makes, for Leaders, whether their citizens are engaged or enraged.
