By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you appreciate your staff more fully. Reading time:3:54.

With apologies to Kahlil Gibran:

Your employees are
not your employees.
They come to work
for you but
They are not necessarily
of you.
And though they are
with you,
They belong
not to you.
You may give them
your valuables.
But not your values.
You may house their bodies
But not their souls.

Maybe that’s why the most effective leaders develop compacts more than contracts with their employees — compacts that empower more than employ; compacts that inspire confidence in employers to proclaim as Henry Ford once did:

“You can take my factories,
burn up my buildings but give me
my PEOPLE and I’ll build the business right back.”

Notice that Henry Ford did not say “my employees.”

Indeed, his PEOPLE were much more than hired hands. His PEOPLE were the heart beat of the company. His PEOPLE were the spirit, energy and drive behind his company. Continue reading →