Employee attitudes typically reflect the moral of the company. In areas of customer service and sales, happy employees are extremely important because they represent the company to the public. Satisfaction, however, is not linked solely to compensation. Sure, a raise or benefits will probably improve employee contentment, at least temporarily, but small, inexpensive changes can have a long-term impact. Continue reading »
Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. Then they are surprised to see productivity and creativity take a big dip. What they should be doing is hiring more “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business.
This commitment to hire people who think like entrepreneurs, or instill an “owner’s mindset” in every employee, should be a high priority in every business. It’s what every customer looks for in every Continue reading »
Being the boss comes with the expectation that some people may be a bit upset with you, from time to time. Most entrepreneurs understand this and can deal with the issues that arise, especially if they are single incidents that can dealt with easily. But what happens when your whole team seems to be against you? A whole lot!
It is important that issues where employees turn against a company owner or manager be dealt with immediately. And going about doing this is probably Continue reading »
Holding employees accountable to their assigned tasks without micromanaging is a classic workplace dilemma that can be difficult to navigate.
The leaders of some of the best workplaces have turned the challenge on its head by building environments where people actually seek accountability and act as owners of the business, in turn eliminating the need for you to hover over them. As evidence, consider that 90 percent of Continue reading »
Few things irritate me more than opacity and unfairness at work. If you have the privilege of leading people, one of the quickest ways you can lose your legitimacy in their eyes is to take away their voice. Before you make any decision that significantly affects the work your folks do, you better have the good sense to ask them what they think. If you discount or ignore this aspect of professional courtesy, it’s going to cost you.
If your people perceive that you are being Continue reading »
