Applied Business Worthiness

In Being Worthy, I define the concept of worthiness as fundamental to your very existence. The idea here is “I am, therefore, I am worthy.” You deserve to be treated with basic respect, love, and care to build a strong cornerstone of worth.

Worthiness can also be applied to all human endeavors by extension. We are worthy and ought to matter in consumer situations. (NOT “Your call is important to us. The next representative will be available in 52 minutes.”) We are entitled to efficient governance for the common good so that the water we drink is clean.

In this blog, I am introducing you to the concept of Applied Business Worthiness and how it can be actionable in improving your bottom line.

In the first instance, applied business worthiness relates to a corporate culture where all of what people do is considered critically important and of value, including their personal conduct.

This is not lip service.

People make constant judgments about how they’re treated versus what is said. There’s a constant reality check where talk is cheap, and worthiness is platinum. We all want our humanity to be recognized, especially when technology is involved. It’s awful to feel that you’re just a cog in a machine and easily replaceable.

If you don’t believe this, consider the enormous structural changes happening in the world of work and how our lives are evolving with it. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing changes in business and industry that were inconceivable just two years ago. Flexible hours, working from home, commuting elimination, Zoom meetings and all that goes with it are here. The explosion of critical supply chain logistics is both challenging and revolutionary. How many grey Amazon delivery trucks have you seen today?

Communicating how much a team matters and their worth is more important than ever to maintain organizational cohesion. Recognition, engagement, work-life harmony, and belonging are all elements of applied business worthiness.

In the second application, when members of the workforce are made to feel worthy and valued on a consistent basis, their deliverable goods and services reflect that message. As people have an inherent desire to implement a sense of self through their work, most want to be proud of the effort.

Dialing it in doesn’t cut it.

In my way of thinking and managing, imparting a sense of worthiness to a worker is directly correlated to performance and excellence. Giving people a sense of agency and purpose in any organization leads to innovation and improved outcomes.

Applied business worthiness is measurable in hard money. In organizations where employees demonstrate identification with values and mission, there is less absenteeism, greater individual performance, and greater retention. To recruit, vet and onboard new workers drains HR resources and results in deterioration of quality, deliverables, and customer satisfaction.

In the third example, applied business worthiness is critical to start-ups and developing businesses. Look what I did here:

I took a permanent marker pen and drew on a CEO’s hand “20%!’

I didn’t learn this in grad school and my mentors would probably not approve. I felt that this was the best way to get an important point across to help his business grow.

Pretty nervy, huh?

OK, why did I do this?

When you’re a new entrepreneur, managing your available limited precious resources is a matter of trade-offs of time, capital, equipment, and key personnel. This is even more challenging when competing within a pandemic environment.

To take his 3-year-old business to the next level, my client was told by his team that the worth of their services was possibly undervalued in the marketplace. Part of that was to attract new business and to be nimble to serve but deeper analysis resulted in discomfort in charging more.

Enter the magic marker.

By having my client drill down on the idea of applied business worthiness, the need to increase price was readily recognized. This would provide additional money to retain and attract the best available people without having to borrow or sweat out a weekly payroll. We also had a good laugh in the process.

If you are intrigued by the concept of Applied Business Worthiness, I invite you to engage with us so that I can share your story with others.

Let’s make your business worthy together!