ATTRACTING FUTURE COLLEAGUES – BY ACTIVELY
STIMULATING THEIR HUMAN CAPITAL
By guest writer Anna Eliasson Lundquist, CEO and owner of
Kvinnokompetensen, Sweden.

The idea of having employees working as brand ambassadors for a company is not
 a new one. However, giving employees the great personal freedom to exercise their
profession still seems to be a bit off. Fostering human development does take time
and resources, but it invariably pays off. 

As a 24 year-old entrepreneur in Sweden back in the 1970s, I was courted by what was
at the time a highly successful company that was a leader in its field. I and my colleague
and life partner at the time duly sold the little company we had built up together and were
invited to develop its activities further within a new framework. Some six months before
that, my dogged pursuit of my dream car had paid off, and I felt very proud and happy about
being able to travel the country doing a job that provided a service and required me to drive
thousands of miles a year in my lovely brand new turquoise Citroen.

 

However, just a few weeks later, my dreams came crashing down when the management
of my company decided I should have the same car that all my colleagues were driving. I
was utterly shell-shocked. Didn’t they understand the link between fulfilling dreams and
being a motivated worker? No, the decision was final, and my car was sold without more ado.
So I found myself stranded there with a shattered dream, surrounded by a horde of male
colleagues (there were 200 men; I was the only woman) who maintained that the company’s
decision had been quite right, in keeping with its quest to streamline its organisation for the
common good of the organisation.

 

Oddly enough, that episode turned out to be one of the main driving forces in my working life,
even though I was unaware at the time that this would turn out to be the case. Indeed, the
incident has repeatedly surfaced in my mind as an example of just how readily young people’s
dreams – and later, for that matter, those of older employees – are sacrificed on the altar of
the ‘greater good’ of their company.

 

The importance of overlapping values

  

But what exactly is the ‘greater good’ of a company? And don’t individuals play a part in
attaining it?

 

We often talk at length about enhancing and caring for a company’s ‘soul’, essentially by
nurturing its brand. This is achieved by every available means. Companies are picky about
whom they hire, what candidates’ personal values are, how they can be induced to aspire to
and go on to achieve greatness, how their personal drive is expressed, how submissive or
bold they really are, and so on. In fact, today, the list of ways in which companies scrutinise
potential employees before they are allowed to slip through the eye of the recruiting needle is
virtually endless. And all this is done in the name of ensuring that the company’s ‘soul’ and
brand thrive, suffer no unnecessary damage and generate handsome profits for the owners.

 

How often do we hear owners and business leaders talk about how strongly their company
cares about and how keenly it develops the minds of its executives and employees? How often
do we hear it said just how closely employees heed their company’s values and monitor how
their employer actually lives up to them in practice? How does a potential employee know that
once they join a company it will not turn around and smash the dreams of their executives and
staff, leaving them to pick up the pieces?

 

What happens when bright-eyed and bushy-tailed employees who are prepared to give their
all for their company see the organisation they hold in such high regard often hastily (yet
allegedly in its own interest) ride roughshod over the promises that attracted them to join it
in the first place?

Fostering personal development
 

After almost 25 years of working in my company, Kvinnokompetensen, to develop top executives’
capabilities, I know that shattered dreams and wounded souls are part and parcel of everyday
business and that they seriously undermine people’s motivation. Decisions reached by top
managers based on economic considerations to do with share ownership take precedence over
any human or mental factors. Dreams and visions, it would seem, are only for the company and
its owners, not for its executives and other employees. And by the time the staff realise this, it is
too late for any regrets.

 

In a nutshell, choosing the wrong company leads to broken dreams, whereas choosing the right
company opens up the way to rewarding personal development based on:

 

• high self-esteem through great personal freedom to exercise their profession;

• a high level of self-worth gained through broad individual responsibilities without anyone looking
over their shoulder or indulging in finger-pointing;

• enjoying their work thanks to an atmosphere of trusting cooperation rooted in integrity and civil courage;

• challenges that foster steady personal development and eke out individuals’ full potential;

• support from respectful bosses who understand that there is room for both emotional and
rational decision-making in a working environment;

• the availability of resources not being hampered by misguided bonus systems or short-sighted
decisions focusing solely on quarterly performance;

• taking a long-term view regarding sustainability and staying power, with a view to making
personal dreams come true.

 

Tomorrow’s winners

 

Personal progress is the key to mental development and can be achieved in many ways.
But different people undeniably require different solutions, quite simply because individual
personalities and requirements vary. Many watchwords are bandied around in this connection.
Some people talk about ‘career development’ or ‘leadership development’. Yet whichever
term is used, one thing is certain: it must be adapted to individual needs. This entails deploying
new and innovative methods, because there is no way a personality can be ‘captured’
anyway - and most certainly not by applying a set, ‘one-size-fits-all’ method.

 

Employers who set about genuinely nurturing souls will end up as tomorrow’s winners.
It is these companies that will attract future leaders and truly driven employees. In this
connection, being a forward-looking employer means taking responsibility for both your
own dreams and those of your workforce. Attractive employers stimulate their staff to
perform in a manner that benefits the company as a whole as well as the respective
individuals themselves. Companies benefit directly from the trusting relations that are
forged when their own collective ‘soul’ matches the individual mindsets of their employees,
resulting in dynamic respect between both partners.

Lessons learned and tips

 

• Personal development is a prerequisite for corporate development.

• Fostering human development takes time and resources, but invariably pays off.

• Companies that inspire their staff to dream by investing in their prime
asset - human resources - earn a far more generous return on that investment.

• Anyone who is genuinely allowed to develop within their company is certain to
become a willing and effective ambassador for that organisation.

About Anna Eliasson Lundquist

She is a passionate entrepreneur, with a background as an economist and humanist.
Currently, CEO and owner Kvinnokompetensen, Stockholm, Sweden

E-mail: a@kvinnokompetensen.com
 

About Kvinnokompetensen
Kvinnokompetensen specialise in management consulting, leadership development and executive search. Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden

Employees: five, plus an additional team of 20 networked experts and business coaches.