Don’t Surround Yourself with Yes-men
If you want to build a successful business, you cannot surround yourself with “yes men.” One of my favorite American athletes of all-time is Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player ever in my opinion. After retiring, Jordan has owned two NBA teams, the Wizards and the Hornets. Both have failed miserably under his watch. Why? Because he has surrounded himself with teams of underlings who are afraid to cross him. Having a team of employees who always agree with you or follow your decisions unquestioningly is only good for your ego. It is no way to grow and succeed as a business.
If you want to succeed, you need a team of highly engaged workers who feel empowered to ask questions, challenge your leadership in a respectful manner, and take ownership in the success of the company. Engaged employees are happier, enthusiastic about their work, and in general more productive in the long run.
It is not easy to build an engaged workforce, as surveys show less than a third of employees feel truly engaged in their organization. Here are five tips you can follow to help build and cultivate your own team of empowered and engaged employees.
1. Have a vision. As the leader, you do set the tone for your company. You need to communicate a clear vision and direction for where you see the business going. Employees value feeling involved in company decisions, even if it is simply in the form of a weekly update. You don’t need to fully lay bare the inner workings of the company, but employees like to know where their company is headed in the future.
2. Define roles. Developing employees who can act and think independently is a difficult task to be sure, but it can be made easier by clearly defining roles within the office. If people know who they are supposed to report to and what responsibilities are theirs, they will feel more comfortable making decisions. Defining managers and leaders gives those beneath them an ability to develop a stronger relationship with their bosses.
3. Encourage self-improvement. Organizational training can only go so far. If you want success, you need employees that are willing to learn and improve on their own. You should create well defined paths within the organization, a ladder, if you will. Make it easy for employees to understand how they can progress within the company. How you get from sales rep to account manager should be clear. You should also always support employees attendance at training seminars or conferences within reason to your personal budget.
4. Allow them to fail. Contrary to popular belief, failure is an option in business, especially if it serves to create a launching pad for a successful employee. If you want employees who are willing to stick their neck out and make decisions on their own, you have to accept the possibility that they will fail every once in a while. Business is an extremely difficult field, and no one bats 1.000 when it comes to decisions, not even the boss. There should be no fear in your employees that one bad decision will place them on the chopping block.
5. Give rewards. Really, this is simple. Humans need to be rewarded for their efforts. A reward creates a sense of accomplishment and drives an employee to want to achieve the same thing again. It does not have to be a big reward, treating an employee who has landed a big client to lunch or offering extra vacation time to your employee of the month will do. These seem like small gestures, but they can generate extreme amounts of good will with your workforce.
