SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How interested are you in taking a role in a different functional area of your company?
- Very interested — I want to learn about other functions: 46.81%
- Interested — it would have to be a great role for me to change though: 34.9%
- Not interested — I’m comfortable where I am and want to stay: 15.1%
- Very disinterested — if asked to change functions, I would refuse the role: 3.19%
Expand Your Horizons. People need new challenges. The minute they stop learning is the minute they lose interest. Clearly the vast majority of you are interested in roles in different functional areas in your organization. I’d venture to bet your people have similar interests. The implication for you as a leader is encourage and enable your talented people to seek out new roles outside your corner of the world. Also be willing and eager to welcome people from other parts of the organization or from different functions onto your team. The more you break down silo walls as a leader, the more engaged the organization will be and the better your people will perform because they’ll have a better understanding of the implications of their work on other functional areas.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”