Create Business Success by Nurturing Employee Growth
People are your business’ greatest resource.
Leading a business can bring a great deal of excitement. You are given an opportunity that provides a deep sense of ownership, autonomy and freedom.
Being a business leader also means it is your responsibility to cultivate the people and experiences around you to further develop your organization.
There was once a wise man named Uncle Ben (Ben Parker from Spiderman) who said a little something like this:
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
There are monetary, personal and professional perks of being a leader, but one of the most rewarding benefits is watching your team grow.
Use the following principles to help you lead your business, while still maintaining structure and balance.
People are everything.
Build and nurture your people
Many business leaders across the world know that they need to apply a well developed strategy to maximize growth.
This sounds pretty straight forward, right?
Unfortunately not. As a business leader, you can’t simply rely on your own skillset and hope that a strategy can be well-executed. The ability to create on-going success is sought after by most, but captured by few.
The solution
Understanding how to leverage your skillset while overseeing the people around you is a critical element to the success of your business.
Whether you’re a technical or creative leader, you must complement your skillset by filling in the gaps with talented people and then nurturing those relationships.
Get them excited
Technology offers many ways to grow a business, but don’t forget that any business would be useless without its people.
In my article “The Rise of the Influencer: 2 Simple Rules to Transform Strangers into Raving Fans”, I spoke about creating raving fans. Similar to creating raving fans as consumers, your employees must love what they are doing, and the company they represent.
When employees feel excited and trusting of their work environment, they will translate that into the work they do; becoming more creative, passionate and efficient.
Challenge them, but leave room to grow
Expectations need to be set to accomplish a goal. Space needs to be given for employees to get something done, and done well.
By not micro-managing, over-pressuring, or giving your employees a precise step-by-step task list of things to do, you will allow enough space for them to use creativity in their problem solving. This empowers them to take on more responsibility and get things done that otherwise you would be doing.
Know how to maximize employee efforts
The energy you and your team put into your business must be maximized. Hustling to get things done is needed, but overloading people can cause burnout.
When balancing people as resources, take the time to see how projects or tasks might affect employee workload, and ultimately, your bottom line.
Let’s say you have a choice to make about starting one of two new projects because you don’t have enough people resources to take on both.
So let’s decide your best course of action:
- A project that will bring in $100,000 and takes 3 months to complete with a 10% profit, OR
- A project that is $30,000 and takes 4 weeks to complete with a 35% profit
See where I’m going here?
Sometimes things may look better at first (like the $100,000), but there may be a better use of time that increases profit margins.
Always take a step back to consider the value of time.
Optimize everything
Building a business takes time. Balance is required so that you can lead your people and your company. Be ready to pivot, but only when necessary.
And always consider your people.
Good luck!
For a great resource on the value of employee growth and engagement, check out “Employee Engagement Strategy for Growing Your Business”.
For more information on being overly busy and how to maximize productivity, check out my last article “The Truth (and Lies) Behind “I’m too busy.”
