Meritocracy. “A government or society in which citizens who display superior achievement are rewarded with positions of leadership. In a meritocracy, all citizens have the opportunity to be recognised and advanced in proportion to their abilities and accomplishments.”
Having recently founded a recruitment agency I find myself often thinking and talking about growing the company when we come out of the pandemic and what that will look like.
I have become obsessed with culture and often write about it in my content and talk about it regularly in my conversations with clients, candidates, industry peers and anyone else who will listen!
I have spent hours and hours researching this topic and comes up often in my HR CIPD learning and assessments.
Now I find myself in an exciting and unique position, starting a journey creating a culture from its infancy around my own agency and getting this right is more important to me than anything else.
This over everything else.
In this new world of working we should be advocating and striving to create a culture that values meritocracy, absolute truthfulness and complete transparency
This concept is not new and the formula for meritocracy – IQ + effort = merit was published over 50 years ago.
Building meritocracy into any company requires empowering your leaders regardless of whether your leader is a director, manger or team leader. It is important they have the tools they need to succeed and drive the company forward.
As leaders it is our responsibility to foster passion internally across the company and externally with our clients and our guests.
I believe that the owner or director of any company should come with a daily mindset that it is they who work for the people around them not the other way around.
It is our responsibility as leaders to really know what makes the people associated with our business tick, understand their drivers, what motivates them and then empower them to set their own direction and follow their passions.
In a meritocracy, great leadership is not about having great ideas, it is about ensuring the best ideas emerge from the people around you and to do this you need to create and actively encourage an environment that promotes listening and sharing.
While building a culture around meritocracy can be time consuming and a lot of effort it will help you stay on the cutting edge, bringing the best ideas to the surface, keeping those around you engaged and promoting true leadership.
Published by Graham Townley, Founder & Chief Evangelist
