Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn CEO, has said that “no matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” Leaders intuitively know that mobilizing their employees toward shared goals is essential to business success. But what happens when what makes executives tick isn’t what makes employees tick?
Historically, most companies frame their goals through the lens of key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics that focus on revenue, profitability, and operational efficiency. While top-down alignment on these metrics can encourage employees to act in service of business goals, especially when KPI performance is tied to accountability and incentives, the age-old corporate pressure to perform better, faster, and cheaper lacks emotional resonance. And that disconnect matters.
