YOU cannot grow your business.

You must grow your people and your people will grow your business.

“What stands in the way of you being more satisfied and productive at work?” Harvard Business Reviewrecently asked this question and others in a survey to find out what team members need to feel and perform better in the workplace. A total of 19,000 people from all levels in different companies across a broad range of industries were questioned about the quality of their life at work.

What they found was not surprising. Team members perform better when they feel more energized, appreciated, focused and purposeful, hence the four core needs:

1. Renewal (physical). Don’t burn out your employees. Encourage them to rest and renew their energy during the workday. They will return to their desks more productive. Start a time-out program where everyone stops and goes outside for five minutes. Never sit more than 90 minutes without moving.

2. Value (emotional). Show your team that their hard work and commitment to the company is valued. “Feeling valued creates a deeper level of trust and security at work, which frees us to spend less energy seeking and defending our value, and more time creating it,” researchers claim. Go, right now, and write a note of thanks to someone in your business.

3. Focus (mental). From web surfing to open floor plans, distractions can take away from employees’ productivity in the workplace. Make sure that your office environment allows for employees to concentrate so that quality tasks are completed efficiently. Create quiet time where everyone stops interaction for 30 minutes daily and just focuses on important tasks.

4. Purpose (spiritual). Employees thrive when they feel that what they do matters. Give your employees the motivation that their work has a higher purpose within the company as a whole. Ask and answer why does the business exist — not what does it do, but why is it here and why we should care.

The study shows that if your company meets just one of these needs, it will have a “dramatic impact” on every performance variable studied, including: engagement, likelihood of retention, stress reduction, focus, life satisfaction and positive energy at work.

The lesson to business leaders is this: Instead of focusing on getting more and more out of your teams, invest in meeting as many of their needs as possible so they are freed and energized to bring their A-game and grow your business each day.