Many employees show up to work each day and have no idea how what they do matters. They create documents, attend meetings, and hit deadlines, but if you asked how their work creates value for the customer or the business, you'd get a blank stare or a vague guess.
That’s a leadership and a communication failing. When people don’t see how their work directly impacts the bigger picture, what’s their motivation? Why work hard if what I do doesn’t matter? Engagement begins to fade, and innovation starts to diminish. People then default to focusing solely on process instead of their purpose.
This is why every single employee in your company needs to have a line-of-sight to their value. Not just how their role supports the organization’s internal goals, but how they contribute to making a positive impact on customers. Because at the end of the day, if it doesn’t add value for the customer, it doesn’t add value at all. This doesn’t mean only customer-facing employees get the line-of-sight benefit. Every single employee can create value — but if they don’t understand how, they disengage.
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This doesn’t require a massive transformation. It simply requires clarity. Leaders need to connect their employees actions to the company’s bigger objectives. This doesn’t mean reiterating your lofty mission statements or the company values. It means providing tangible insights. How does a report they created influence a better decision? How does maintaining and upgrading this system help serve a customer faster or better? How does this initiative help move the team closer to solving a real customer problem?
When people can see the through-line from their desk to the customer to the bottom line, they gain a different perspective. When people tap into the value behind their work, everything changes. They begin to own their decisions and steer their actions with intention. What was once just a paycheck–driven task becomes a meaningful contribution with real, measurable impact. And that’s when real performance begins to take flight.
Lily Wilford, the 17-year-old owner of Sioux City's Papa Murphy's franchise, talks about developing leadership and authority.
Andrea Belk Olson
Andrea Belk Olson is the CEO of Pragmadik, a strategic change agency, serving multi-billion-dollar companies. She is a 3x published author, contributor to Harvard Business Review, INC magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, World Economic Forum, a TEDx Speaker, and a SCORE Subject Matter Expert. She is also an instructor/coach for the University of Iowa's Entrepreneurial programs.
