You’ve likely spent time and effort defining your company’s long-term strategy, but what’s your time horizon when you think about the long term?  Maybe three to five years?  I would call that a medium term focus.

Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia, was experiencing very fast revenue growth. The company had the opportunity to expand into multiple worldwide retail chains.  It would have launched the business on a major growth spurt.  Instead, Chouniard and his team stepped back and said, “Whoa - let’s take a look at who we are and what we want to accomplish in this world as a company - over the very long term.”  

My favorite business book I read this year is Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown.  Greg describes the dilemma of many successful people.  As success piles up, so do more opportunities and more requests.  The list of opportunities grow bigger.  The temptation is to think you can do it all.  My gosh, look what you have achieved, and just think what more you can achieve if you continue to expand your efforts!  In one simple diagram, Greg captures the difference between the Essentialist’s way of life and the Non-Essentialist's way of life.  

In both cases, the same amount of energy is exerted.  However, on the right, there is much more progress.  On the left, the energy is divided into many different activities.  On the right, the energy is given to a singular purpose.  The result on the right is that by investing in fewer things, you have the satisfying experience of making significant progress in the things that matter most.  The Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many.  

A recent Gallup poll with large companies found that 87% -- yes, that’s 87% -- of people were disengaged in their work.  

Do you find that hard to believe? I promise you that if I took a survey of CEOs, each would say, “Well that may be the national average, but it’s not the case in my company!”  It may not be, but I would challenge any CEO to explore how many people at their organization actually are disengaged.  

With year-end compensation reviews and bonus setting, we focus heavily on financial motivation. Yet top employees rarely stay “just for the money.” Recent studies show that the team they work with and the meaning of their work is even more important.

Laszlo Bock, SVP of Google’s People Operations was quoted recently saying, “People want to do more than just make a buck. People want to do something that means something.”

If a company can set up an annual review to evaluate monetary compensation, why not spend equal time on meaning compensation? Getting this right could make a big impact on engagement and identify how best to bring out the best in each and every employee.