Employ your team’s talents to engage in creating a social impact
To engage employees and turn nobody wants to work “into everyone wants to contribute,” there needs to be a consideration of who or what they contribute and how they contribute. Without this crucial consideration, a social initiative may be unsustainable.
As a small business, you may want to take advantage of the camaraderie of collaborative contributions. So, if you miss the mark on connecting your team to their compassion-connection™, all is not lost. They may discover meaning by tapping into their talents to execute a contribution.
by Suzanne F. Stevens, Conscious Leadership and Social Contribution Cultivator, Founder, YouMeWe Social Impact Group Inc. Part of the Nobody Wants to Work Series.
As with understanding a beneficiary, the key to appreciating where your colleagues are coming from is listening to what they want, how they want to deliver on it, and assessing how that will benefit the whole.
Use talents to make your contribution count.
Talents are like beacons that guide us to optimize our potential. When we utilize our unique gifts, we operate at our most powerful.
Those talents may be the strengths your colleague wants to employ to make their contribution count, as expertise is always needed to address a social, economic, or environmental issue.
Colleagues are more engaged when contributing to a cause where they are employing their talents. As a matter of fact, there is a foundation called Taproot Foundation, whose sole mission is to connect employees’ expertise with non-profits through pro bono work.
Gladys Muhunyo, a woman we interviewed on YouMeWe Amplified Podcast, describes how to use your talents best: She says, “It is all about what you have, not what you don’t have. Begin with what you have, and you will be able to achieve your objective. Know your skills and talents, and your business will grow.” This holds for making a social impact.
However, there are other considerations that you may want to discuss before deciding that your bookkeeper would like to do book-keeping for a non-profit or that your tech person wants to code for the local community center.
What do your colleagues enjoy?
Contributing to a social initiative may not be part of “the job” unless your business is, in fact, a social enterprise or has a social impact built into your mission (which I strongly encourage). If manufacturing ear muffs aren’t connected to your social need (although there is a possibility of distributing them to the homeless and possibly giving you meaning), asking what your colleagues enjoy may be a better barometer of where to contribute.
During my first trip to Kenya, I struggled between my strengths in business development and what I thought I would enjoy. My option was to work with women entrepreneurs or paint a school alongside teenage girls. Although both options would provide unique insight, I had an opportunity to gain access to a place that tourists often can’t gain access to. Speaking to Kenyan teenage girls would offer me a perspective I may never otherwise experience. The road taken proved to be transformational.
The insight gained from these teenagers was another motivator for me to establish the YouMeWe Foundation and launch YouMeWe Amplified Podcast to provide teenagers with a platform to learn from leaders within their culture. Conducting interviews connected me to pioneering women and allowed me to learn about their leadership and social impact—all of which I love.
Your joy will bring others joy, and that alone has a huge impact.
Your colleagues may want to learn a new skill or have a new adventure. Doing what they do every day may feel more depleting than energizing. Contributing to their compassion-connection™ is an excellent opportunity to explore new skills and avenues to strengthen their experience. Or connect in unique ways they are not afforded at work.
Often board volunteers want to explore new terrain when they raise their hand for a role. This is an amazing opportunity to test or learn skills to enhance your career progression.
What environment do colleagues want to contribute their talents in?
Although talents and what you enjoy may dictate the environment that your colleagues like to contribute to, they also can be mutually exclusive. Some people prefer to contribute collaboratively, and others want to drive their own results where they can integrate their personality and values. When contributing to a project together, there are often several roles. Each employee can select at least one position that will help maximize their meaning.
During a Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraising event (an international charity that works with young people by providing voluntary mentors), a speaker explained the various roles to contribute to youth. She suggested you could be a donor, sit on the board, be a big brother or sister, or participate in fundraising. Each position is distinct, and an employee would want to consider where they are most motivated, what they enjoy, and where they can utilize their talents.
If they like to brainstorm ideas, they may choose to be on a board of directors to have a voice in the organization’s strategy. They may prefer to work solo and find themselves drawn to fundraising, where they can get things done on your terms. Perhaps they like to experience their impact firsthand and want to be involved at the grassroots level. In this case, providing mentorship to youth could be the most fulfilling.
Their purpose may connect them with a cause or initiative, but they may not know how to serve it. Assess which environment brings out an employee’s best, a discovery that will propel their impact.
By assessing where someone wants to serve, perhaps by creating a fundraising event to stop forest fires, welcome immigrants, provide underprivileged children with breakfast, or assist marginalized people in paying their water bills. There are several roles to execute a successful impact. Selecting an environment that brings the best out of your team members will expedite their fulfillment.
So, although having an initiative that connects employees to their compassion-connection™ is ideal, it isn’t always possible when you have a small team. When you lead a company with a social impact embedded in the mission, you will likely draw the talent you need to realize it. However, as mentioned in a previous YouMeWe Infusion, that is not always the case.
Sometimes you need skill and said employee has it but isn’t motivated by the mission. Regardless, suppose you strategically implement a social, economic, or environmental initiative that capitalizes on employees’ talents, provides enjoyment, and can be executed in an environment that brings out their best. In that case, they just may experience meaning at work and avoid the great resignation exudes.
What can you do now to make your contribution count?
Survey your team to elicit insights into:
- Do they want to participate in a social initiative? (Let them know their participation can be confined to “working” hours.)
- What talents would they like to use in contributing to a social initiative?
- What do they enjoy?
- What environment brings out their best?
By assessing employees’ desires, you’re taking a crucial step in making your collaborative contributions count.
Download 7 strategies to create a culture of Inclusion and Belonging. inspired by advocates, business, and community leaders on how to engage diverse talent.
At YouMeWe Social Impact Group, we grow conscious leaders and their social impact—sustainably. Subscribe to YouMeWe Infusion to make your contribution count for you, your organization, and your community.
P.S. do you have a question about growing your social impact?
Let me know in the comment
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