If you want your small business to succeed, look no further than your own employees. The battle certainly doesn't stop there, but consider this: without a team of hard-working, dedicated, adaptive employees behind you, how successful does your business really have a chance of becoming?
The success of your small business depends on your team. Let's look at a few ways to assemble a team that will make you, not break you.
Don't hire cookie-cutter versions of yourself.
You might think that hiring new employees is the perfect way to mold your company in your own image. And you have a point: you certainly want to hire people who are dedicated and committed to seeing your mission succeed.
But don't fall into the trap of building a team made up of carbon copies of you. Your business already benefits from your perspectives and experiences -- you're the one in charge. What you really need is a team made up of a wide variety of experiences, each with a unique insight, ability to relate to your customers and your market, and way of looking at the world. It's a simple fact that a well-rounded team will be in the position to be the most innovative; make sure you're harnessing that innovation effectively.
Give your new employees the motivation they need to do their best.
Everyone is motivated by different things. Some of us want recognition for a job well done; some of us want the odd Friday afternoon off on an uncharacteristically productive week when there's fishing to be doing; some of us want cold, hard cash.
Don't know what is going to motivate everyone? Ask them! Determine how each of them would feel most rewarded for a job well done, and see if you can build your procedures around their suggestions. Not everybody is motivated by office pizza parties -- consider taking your employees out for lunch somewhere where they can choose something less cheesy/greasy, if that's their preference, or organizing a monthly happy hour at a bar nearby that you know has great deals.
By paying attention to each of your employees' personalities, you're able to combine your business's goals with those of your team. What could be better for business than that?
Be the office culture you want to see.
When you're the boss, your good or bad moods carry the most influence. If you're pleased with the way business is going, your entire team will pick up on it, and everyone will be a little more relaxed. But if you're upset -- even if it has nothing to do with your business -- your employees will be on edge, and attitudes (and therefore dedication and commitment) will suffer.
The bottom line: your office culture is exactly what you've shaped it to be by your own actions. If you have a negative opinion of your customers or clients, so will your employees, and your customers will notice and business will suffer. If you tolerate poor performance and reward underperforming employees by taking no action to stop it, business will suffer right along with morale for the employees whose hard work is going unnoticed.
But if you greet each day with a smile, reward hard work, foster an environment of respect and teamwork, and trust each employee to use his or her abilities to their full advantage, that trust and respect will translate to your clients, and everybody wins.
SOURCES:
Sarah Kolb - Business incorporation and copyright registration specialist. Freelance book editor. Senior content editor/writer.
