Have you ever felt like there was a grander mission waiting for you on the other side of your current job? If you’ve felt that way before, you’ll resonate with Richard Leftley, the Founder of MicroEnsure, and his story of creating this game-chaning company. Furthermore, you’ll understand his rationale for empowering his employees.

Richard frequently visits the regions they operate in to build a connection with the employees—not just senior employees but all employees including the call center workers. This has helped empowered employees to contact the CEO directly with ideas for improvements. The employees working in the day-to-day operations see first hand the challenges as well as the opportunities for improvement. By building rapport with them and showing they matter to the CEO, they are more likely to be that empowered employee that improves processes and shares ideas. They show up to work feeling like their role and opinion matters.

Some of the best ideas have been shared from these interactions with lower level employees. Their CEO will go mountain biking with them and engage in activities like a friend.