Ask not what your people can do for you, but what can you do for your people. Behind every great business idea and every successful business model are a group of people motivated for success. As a business owner, your professional future can be shaped by those around you, so give them the chance to flourish.
Learn What Makes People Tick
Every employee is different, just like every business owner. Spend time to get to know an employee – what do they enjoy away from the professional sphere? How did they reach this point in their working life? Where do they see their future?
Do they love to go swimming? Are they interested in art or the movies? Have they discovered the internet service near Mystic, which has massively enhanced their love for online gaming? Are they reading a new book?
It might feel like you are wasting precious time, but the reality is the opposite. Investing time in your people shows that you care, and when a person feels wanted, they will be motivated to deliver results.
Different People Need Different Management
Once you know more about a person, it allows you, the business owner, the option to adapt your management approach.
The sporting arena has taught us that some produce their best when given gentle encouragement, while others in the same team might need a more forceful approach.
It is the responsibility of a good manager to understand their people and to know how to get the best from them. This requires a degree of flexibility.
Share the Love of Your Business
The best managers take employees on a journey, and they motivate those around them by sharing the vision for their business.
Employees should want to bring success because they feel like an integral cog in the wheel, a crucial component in the concept, and effective managers harness that enthusiasm by demonstrating that every worker is a key part of the process.
Develop Their Skills
Good employees should want to better themselves, learn all the time, and develop new skills.
Whatever their field of expertise, provide them with the support to grow. If your accountant is feeling stagnant, explore new courses with them and opportunities to learn. If your sales team is feeling low, show them that new motivational video you found.
Inspire those around you to be better than before by showing them that you are also learning new ideas all the time. Right up to the day he retired, Michael Jordan was practicing new skills on the basketball court, and Serena Williams is probably out there right now, sharpening her forehand.
Wanting to improve should be a constant and business owners should embrace those that want to develop themselves, and those who want to be better every single day.
Conclusion
Above all else, it is the ability to listen and to inspire that creates a good business owner and a good manager of people. If you invest energy into your people, they will deliver results and, ultimately, that is the goal for all businesses.
