Keep Your WITS About You

Many workplaces are not effective because they ignore their most valuable asset: purposeful employees — change agents who guide colleagues into bigger arenas and help them feel safe.

As you remove boundaries and help others thrive, you become a purposeful employee or WITS: Wise, Innovative, Thoughtful, and Spunky.

No company can thrive without its WITS. They are a constant source of energy and perspective for others, and they have an amazing ability to recharge their own batteries.

In business, smart people do not always succeed, gifted people cannot always contribute, and even WITS can lose touch with their higher selves. Of these three —smart, gifted, and WITS — the WITS are most essential for success.

Many companies are frustrated by their inability to grow leaders. They profess a desire for inspirational change agents, but they do not know what to do with them. WITS create environments that invite change and growth; they redefine traditional notions of leadership through originality and personal connection. They speak fluent change and know that the external environment is not the enemy, just isolation and habit. Because WITS do not fear change, they leave organizations when they cannot connect in meaningful ways; and when companies lose their WITS, they not only lose their most valuable employees but also lose perspective and their most expressive voices.