Profit ain’t everything

An interesting snippet caught my eye  in the recent Harvard Business Review, in an article called ”Why Profit Shouldn’t Be Your Top Goal”…

“…if a CEO’s primary focus is on profit maximization, employees develop negative feelings towards the organization. They tend to perceive the CEO as autocratic and focused on the short term, and they report being somewhat less willing to sacrifice for the company. Corporate performance is poorer as a result.

This research [...]  underscores the risk of single-mindedly pursuing profit”

Makes sense.  Who’s going to go out of their way to make someone else (e.g. CEO, shareholders) rich, particularly at significant personal cost to themselves? As a motivational strategy, ‘we have to make $X profit” is limited – you might get a basic level of compliance but you won’t get much engagement and initiative.

For all the talk about self-interest, the evidence suggests that humans are actually social creatures who are intrinsically motivated by working together in pursuit of a bold vision.

What picture of the future are you painting?