Page 279 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

IMPLICATIONS FOR EXECUTIVES, HUMAN RESOURCES, AND INDIVIDUALS

taken lightly. But the leader who attends to making meaning
will likely find more support in meeting financial, customer,
and other business goals as well.
Leaders communicate both formally and informally the
things that matter most to them. When communications
include not only facts but feelings, leaders can touch hearts
as well as minds. At the large state university off-site where
the president invited stories about why people cared about
education, he gave each leader a Newberry Award–winning
children’s book and invited them to give the book to a child
they knew. They were asked to write a personal note to this
recipient to explain why learning mattered to them. This
symbolic act helped them directly experience the joy of shar-
ing the value of learning with someone they cared about.
The university off-site ended with a video of current students
telling their stories of how the university had helped them.
Sharing customer experiences with a company’s products or
services helps employees connect with the impact of their
work on real people—always a meaning builder.

Human Resource Implications

Dave has spent much of his career figuring out how to build
human resource (HR) systems that deliver value—both
inside the company to employees and managers and outside
the company to customers, investors, and communities. He
has helped focus HR on the outcomes or value it creates for
others rather than on internal HR activities and practices.
HR work that focuses on adding value becomes a means for
leaders to sustain desired results. Dave is frequently asked

255