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Business results are the successful outcomes of the actions of people at work. Your enduring business challenge is to attract, focus and keep talented employees. The "people power" of your business is sometimes referred to as human capital. How much human capital do you have? How can you better leverage your human capital to drive business results?

In their groundbreaking research involving over 80,000 managers in 400 companies, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman¹ discovered a surprisingly powerful set of questions that define the essence of what it means to align your people. The questions allow you to measure the strength of a workplace simply and accurately. They measure the core elements needed to attract, align, focus and keep your most talented people.

What are these twelve questions? ²

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Employees who strongly agree with each of these questions are focused, motivated and productive. They personally identify with the Main Thing of your business, understand your strategy, and are energized to help you achieve your business goals. In short, leaders who manage their teams to high levels of satisfaction using these twelve questions have fully leveraged their human capital.

At first glance, these questions seem to be straightforward, perhaps even intuitive. Yet the more time you spend with them, the more intriguing and penetrating they become. For example, to score well with the question, "Do I have an opportunity to do what I do best everyday?" suggests that your company is either excellent at designing the job to fit the strengths of the person or excellent in recruiting and selecting people with the abilities and interests that fit the requirements of the job, or both.

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