As a Fintech company we are obsessed with data and quantifying our productivity as it drives our products and value to our customers. However, as the events of 2020 unfolded and “business as normal” became anything but normal, we found that using our tried and true metrics to evaluate and motivate our team to achieve optimal performance was no longer the most effective tool. While we still don’t have the answer on how to best motivate our team members, we have determined that the single most important element for everyone right now is humanity. Instead of launching directly into shop talk, we are taking a pause to ask about the individual to gain an understanding of the challenges they are facing both physically and emotionally.
I am so inspired by our employees who are adapting to the changes COVID has thrown at them and are continuing to live their lives despite the circumstances. Our team has welcomed babies, moved across the country, become full time teachers while maintaining their full time employment, dealt with family members suffering from COVID, bought new homes, adopted pets, and the list goes on, all whilst adapting to a new dynamic work environment. I must remind myself that our mission is not to hit sales targets or shave minutes off email response times, it is to help people build their businesses. While the definition of “building your business” varies for every organization, it is without a doubt that people are critical to helping your business accomplish its goals.
Instead of focusing on metrics to measure individual success, make time to focus on your mission. If the team is driving together towards on a clear mission, the ‘how’ of that mission can change, but the outcome does not. In these uncertain times, we must not fight with each other, but fight for each other instead. A sense of unity and being a part of a support system is more important now than ever, and we should be focusing on how to create this environment for our teams. To develop and grow PensionPro’s togetherness and enhance team communications, we began utilizing DiSC, a personality assessment focused on individual’s natural behaviors in the workplace. This has been an insightful and fun process as we have been learning about ourselves, peers, and managers and what makes everyone tick. This exercise has enabled us to understand each other as human beings and grow the bond within our teams and across the company. Most importantly, it has given us a sense of unity to pull together as a team working towards a common goal and helping each other along the way to reach the finish line, to accomplish the mission.
It’s in times of turmoil and uncertainty that businesses are put to the test and people see how they are valued and if the organization has the resilience to withstand hardship. The author Simon Sinek speaks about an infinite mindset being a critical trait for leaders and organizations to be successful, and I tend to agree. Embracing the infinite mindset means you can innovate and adapt to the changes thrown at you while always keeping the long game in mind, not just what is directly in front of you. The rules of business are far different than where they were nine months ago, but we can, and need to adapt. In many ways, the metrics have changed, but fortunately the mission is still the same.
If working at PensionPro sounds awesome to you, check out our job board. If you don’t see your job up there send us a note and tell us why you would be a good fit here.
