“They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Show your staff you care by the way you treat them and interact with them. Expectations and challenges will not matter unless you are also authentically caring about the people you are hoping to inspire. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, do your staff know how to handle a situation if one of your employees are diagnosed with breast cancer? Does your entire staff know your company’s policies on health care? Are any of your employees apprehensive about disclosing unfavorable health concerns? Your staff should convey the message to everyone they are important, and the company truly cares about them.

Showing that you genuinely care about your employees, engages them at a deeper level than just “being at work”. It then becomes a place that they can actually relate to and, maybe even want to come to, a home away from home per say. Which, in turn inspires them to put their best effort forward, because they really care about what they are doing and the overall success of the company/business. Caring for your employees also have proven to have the most staying power and the most impact on inspiring them.

At this level, people are motivated by a range of needs other than those for economic security, including needs for meaning of why, and recognition.   And, yet, this transparent reality is hidden from view in the work of the organizers and leaders of progressive businesses who too often treat their staff, members and public audiences as if most of these needs are irrelevant.

Focus on what is best for your employees. Don’t forget about them, because of your position.

Just remember you were there once upon a time.

If you are ever wonder if your staff and/or employees doubt whether or not you care, the answers to these four questions will keep you and them on track;

1.  How could you start showing your employees that you care?

2.  In which ways could you interact with them?

3.  How can you do it genuinely?

4.  What kind of changes can you make to the way you treat them?