Worthy goals and ideals.
People are far happier and far more productive when they are absolutely clear about their goals, their responsibilities, and the ideals and mission of the company. We spend two or three hours a week in meetings where we talk about where we are as a company, where we're going, what our goals are, and where we want to be. People are more positive when they're involved in discussions about the goals and aims of the organisation.

What's worthy to one organisation may be very unworthy to another. Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, says that you can divide people into four quadrants. In the upper left-hand quadrant, you have people who are competent and who buy into the company's values and goals. In the right-hand quadrant, you have people who are competent but don't buy in. In the lower left-hand quadrant, you have people who are not competent but they buy in. And in the fourth quadrant, you have incompetent people who don't buy in.

Welch says that you dismiss people in the fourth quadrant; you train or redeploy those in the third quadrant (buy in but incompetent); you nurture those in the second quadrant (competent but don't buy in); and you keep all those in the first quadrant (buy in and competent). Welsh says that most problems come from people in Quadrant 2 (people who are competent but don't buy your values and your goal.). He says you must get them to buy in or get rid of them, no matter how good they are, because you can't have people who are not committed to what you stand for.

At a minimum, people must share your basic values. They must buy in to what you stand for. You can't keep people who don't, because one person who doesn't buy in can cause chaos.

Self-understanding and self-knowledge.
Self-understanding and self-knowledge--the great Socratic principle, man know thyself--is essential for progress. Self-knowledge means to be very honest with yourself about where you're strong, where you're weak, how you're perceived, who's the competition, and what they do better. My friend, Ken Blanchard, says that four times a year they bring in an outside consultant to examine a particular area of the company and report back. Ken seeks an objective third-party opinion to keep the organisation functioning at its best by having a high level of self-knowledge and self-awareness. They don't drink their own bathwater and convince each other that they're right. The more honest you are with yourself, the more breakthroughs you can achieve. The 360-degree feedback is a tremendous way to gain self-knowledge. It allows people to see their strengths and weaknesses in a nonthreatening environment, and learn how to become better.

Self-actualisation and self-fulfillment.
Any organisation that achieves its full potential is going to make a difference in the world. This is the exciting part, the self-actualisation part of the pyramid. This is the area of boundless possibilities--getting a company to think in terms of "if we were the very best we could be, what difference could we make in our world?" People with low self-esteem and self-direction tend to think, "If everybody in this organisation worked together well, cooperated, and had high levels of positive interaction, what difference would it make?" I can answer that question: the companies that embrace these principles perform much better and people are much happier.

As you take what you're doing to the ultimate, the more you experience self-actualisation and self-fulfillment.