What’s in it for YOU? A Different Take on Personal Success

I am a big fan of finding the answers to the simple question of “what’s in it for me?” in the context of what really matters to people at work and for their careers.

I believe that any person with career and leadership ambitions has one - maybe two - personal drivers that contain the essence of the answer to the above question. 

This is what I call the “What’s in it for me?” question.

When you develop a higher level of psychological safety within your team or within colleagues or friends, you can try to open up the discussions around your respective “what’s in it for me?” questions.

Some examples that I often hear when I scratch the surface on this issue at my workshop are like this: 

# Aiming for a CxO-level position either within current organization or a new one

# Becoming acknowledge and being recognized as a highly respected specialist

# Head a specific business unit or function such as innovation or HR

Sometimes the answer also floats around the desire to have a good work/life balance and for a few who have worked for many years, it could also be that they just want to RIDE IT OUT FOR RETIREMENT. 

Honestly, when I interact with the latter group, I immediately know that it will be tough to succeed with change and growth initiatives.

Win over stakeholders, build stronger teams

Identifying and understanding the answer to the “what’s in it for me?” question is key when you’re trying to win over stakeholders to your initiative, project or cause. It’s also a key element for building even stronger teams. 

Here’s a fairly provocative statement. No one is loyal to a company or an organization!

Let’s use a simple scenario to test this.

You can get a similar job to what you have today. It’s the same kind of purpose, environment and with a similar team. However, you get triple the pay. No strings attached. Just much better pay. Will you take the new job?

99% will consider it. 95% will make the move. That’s my guesstimate.

If we look at the reasons why some people stay put, I see this happens when there is a special purpose within the organization and when there are strong relationships and bonds at the team level.

The point is that we, as individuals, are not loyal to a company or an organization, but we are in some cases and to a certain point to our team members. We need to take this more into account when to comes to team and organizational dynamics.

Psychological safety is key

Imagine that this is your team. You have team members who are highly attractive to others, but they stay put as your team has a sense of purpose that everyone buys into and because you have developed a high level of psychological safety within the team. In short, you have created a special environment.

This psychological safety among other things allows you to open up and share the answers to the “what’s in it for me?” question. Now, you know some personal, yet work related, things about your team members and you can help each other. 

Everyone also accepts that you have different and personal goals for the future and that some if not all see the team as a springboard for something else. Yet, you are still convinced that everyone will do the best for the team even though it might just be for a limited time.

The bonus of opening up like this is that you make space for the “I” in the team. You serve the team in full, but the team members also help each other reach their personal goals. It’s team first, but “I” comes right after. That’s a powerful combination to take your team to an even higher level and make it even stronger.

For this to happen, you need to build a high level of psychological safety and then embrace the growth mindset approach in ways that benefit everyone in the team. This should be lead by the team leader, but it can only happen with the buy-in and support of the full team. 

That’s what I mean by having an “I” in Team.