by Samuel Gitukui
Many big businesses unfortunately do not treat their workers in an ideal manner. Whether its management barking orders or the supervisor never letting the employee perform their tasks without breathing down their necks, this is simply inefficient management and undermines the creativity and the job satisfaction of the employee.
The small business or startup is often characterized by few employees and the business leader takes the time to acknowledge individual contribution to the company.
Many business leaders have recently become aware of the treatment of employees and have put in place policies for allocating more benefits to the employees. However, there is more that needs to be done. The great thing is there are those enterprise leaders that are pushing for workers to receive a share of the company profits including dividends.
These are some reasons why modern large businesses should maintain a startup mentality.
It can be disastrous to force changes on the workers
It is crucial for the employees to have a choice in the company matters. Since there are at the forefront of the day to day business, they will after all, be the first to come up with ideas on how processes and procedures can be improved.
Modern businesses see changes at light speed. Unfortunately, there are some managers that still believe that the best way forward is to do more talking and less listening.
Surprisingly, it is the management that needs to embrace change the most. The employees need to be allowed a voice and should not feel as though they are being controlled all the time.
This will also result in employees having more opportunities to grow as they share their ideas. Team members feel appreciated and valued and this increases job satisfaction and reduces turnover.
Employees want more than money
The younger workforce of millennials wants more than a well-paying job. They want a job that gives their lives meaning. In fact, studies show that millennials will gladly leave the organization for a lower paying job that offers greater fulfillment.
The main reasons why many businesses should maintain a startup mindset will often come down to a sense of belonging. If millennials are given the opportunity to make a difference, they will have greater job satisfaction than simply having a better pay.
As a business leader, it is important that you ask yourself, does the job offer my workers more than just a check at the end of the month? If the answer is no, then something needs to be done about it.
And there is good reason to keep a young workforce and the right company culture is key to maintaining your workforce. Being an autocratic leader is more likely to put off the younger worker force. They are the most energetic and have the best potential of skyrocketing the business to the nest level.
One excellent way of giving employees meaning in their jobs is allowing them time every day to work on what they think will benefit the business.
Creating the Ideal Company Culture
The company culture has the largest influence on employee job satisfaction and whether they enjoy working for the company or not.
Creating the perfect company culture however is not easy. It needs patience and somewhere along the way, the business leader is going to make mistakes. With the right ideals, and a willingness to create a workforce that enjoys working for your business, there are a few things that you can do.
Let’s find out!
1. Start off by hiring for skill, attitude as well as knowledge
When hiring your next employees, having the right skills and knowledge is crucial. Granted there will be new job skills that will be acquired once the employee is in training. However, it is important that the employee demonstrates what they are capable of doing. Only then will you be able to judge whether the candidate is right for the task or not.
During the interview, instead of just using buzzwords, the potential employee will show their knowledge of the subject matter. This makes training easier and ensures that you get someone who is capable.
But having the right skills and knowledge is just the first step. It is important the interviewee has the right attitude. You want to hire people who are likeable and who will integrate well with the rest of the workforce.
Try learning the individual at a more personal level and you can tell how likeable they are.
2. Make the hiring process more streamlined
The interview process can make or break the attitude of the candidate to your business. If it lengthy and has too many questions, the worker will be discouraged and will no longer have any enthusiasm to work for the company.
In fact, if another company offers the candidate a more attractive offer, they will prefer that company over yours.
Always make sure that the interview process is simple and doesn’t make the interviewee feel threatened. Also ensure that you follow up and send feedback to the potential employee whether or not they got the position.
Do not completely eliminate them from future positions and assure them that they will get first priority when there is another position in the company.
3. Make your employees comfortable
If you want your employees to enjoy coming to the office every day, it is important to put measures in place to make their work environment more comfortable.
Some savvy business leaders will go as far as having inhouse acupuncture or holding parties and comedy shows for their employees. All this is great but not always necessary.
You can maintain a healthy and thriving workforce, by providing a few basic essentials such as office space filled with natural light, fresh air and allowing them to personalize their work area.
You can so make sure that the equipment is up to date as well as adding a few green plants that bring a bit of life and color to the working area.
Note however that managing a young workforce requires skill and a good business leader will know how to bring everyone together.
How To Manage a Young Workforce
While the goals of managing every workforce is to bring people together, it is important to understand that managing a young workforce is not the same as managing an older workforce. Since they have different needs, the approach on management needs to be different in order to bring everyone in sync.
A younger workforce has greater demands and these demands are also more intensive. For one, the younger generation requires a greater sense of job flexibility, as well as participation in business objectives. They want to do something that has meaning and want to know that their actions are directly impacting the business in a positive way.
Millennials are first and foremost in search of a company culture that is more open. The business environment needs to adapt by having fewer departments. Granted what one business does may not apply to all businesses, but you can get valuable information from understanding what the younger generation requires.
Communication is key and according to a recent study, companies that have invested in good communication systems provide 47 percent more profit to their shareholders than companies that have not invested in proper communication channels.
Simply put, if you are dealing with a smaller and younger team that is highly energetic, you can increase the business revenue significantly by boosting communication. All you have to do is listen to your young workforce and understand their needs and requirements. From here you can tailor the right communication channels to them.
This is the age of social media and almost all tasks are digitalized. The human resource department thus needs to work even harder to ensure that the office is running as expected. Consider that almost everyone who is under 40 years old is using a social media channel. As a business leader, it is important to consider applying similar channels of communication. Simply put sending an email is more likely to be ignored than sending a slack conversation.
Once you understand this, you can incorporate into your own business. You will need to put a two-way communication channel to the organization. You can do this by putting in place an open reporting system where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. The employees also need to know what management is planning.
Also talk to the employees. Find out about their worries and concerns and use that information to come up with proper communication channels. After doing this, you need to share your views to them to get the young workforce conversant with your plans. You can then sell them your ideas and internal protocols.
However, all this is faced by certain challenges top of which is selling the idea to the CEO and the business leaders. There is every chance that providing such an idea will be met with a certain level of resistance.
As a business leader however, you should aim at ensuring that the right communication channels are in place. Stand firm with your decisions and see to it that your ideas are implemented.
Once you have the right communication channels in place, use them to provide positive feedback to your employees.
Why Business leaders Need to Make Use of Positive Feedback
Feedback is not always about telling your team members where they need to improve. It is also important to complement them where they have performed well. Many workers will tell you that their boss is yet to give them any positive feedback and will often receive much criticism when they have underperformed.
A positive feedback is a direct, effective and sophisticated way to encourage positive behaviors in the business. But there is a right way to provide positive feedback.
Providing compliments
Complimenting team members for performing well in their work will automatically increase their morale. In turn, their productivity goes up.
On the other hand, team members who work extra hard on their job but don’t receive any acknowledgement will be demoralized.
Some leaders simply believe that people should not be complemented if they are being payed to do their job. However human psychology proves otherwise.
Being specific
Avoid being vague in your compliments. Be specific and tell the team members exactly why you are complementing them and what part of the task appealed to you.
The compliment and acknowledgement will have a greater effect and appear more real.
Elements of a positive feedback
Start by using positive terms such as excellent, great, and wonderful. When you give the compliment, be specific on what was good about the work or presentation.
Also talk about the results of the actions of the team member such as increased revenue, and greater efficiency.
End the compliment by thanking them.
Don’t add in any criticism
Make sure that you do not add in a negative feedback while giving your positive feedback.
Note that in a meeting, there may be need to talk about what can be improved as well. However, giving a positive feedback on its own is enough to provide a significant effect as well.
Write it down
After giving a positive feedback, you can also put it in writing such as sending a note or sending an email to the team member.
A hand written note feels more personal in this digital era.
Let all the other team members know
The positive feedback will have a greater effect if it sent during a meeting. After all, it is always the best to praise in public and correct in private.
When you want to give negative feedback, call the team member to the office and have a private conversation. Do not do this in front of the other team members as this can create a feeling of resentment.
Also, it’s a good idea to have a specific time of day to give positive feedback and to do this regularly. The aim is to boost the self-esteem of the workers. This can have a huge impact on their productivity.
Another major benefit of positive feedback is employee satisfaction. Team members feel content in their place of work when the leader shows them that they are making an impact in the business. This will reduce the rate of employee turnover.
Having a workforce that enjoys working for the business makes it that much easier to delegate tasks and focus more on where the business is headed. Delegating however demands patience.
Learning How to Delegate Tasks
Delegating work as a business leader is one of the hardest choices you can make. It is not easy to trust that someone else will complete the work in time and maintain the same level of high-quality standards that you do. However, failing to delegate will often leave you with too much work, leave you feeling overwhelmed and burned out at the end of the day.
There is great benefit to learning how to delegate. You are able to focus on other tasks and you will not be as emotionally and physically drained.
Delegation is important for any business leader. Why? Because you are also able to develop the strengths of your individual team members. As a result, your collective strength increases. As a leader you can focus on the future and the direction of the business without being clogged up by the weeds.
And when it is all said and done, delegation helps you remain sane by not having too much on your mind.
Many business leaders however will struggle with delegation. The good thing is that you have access to tools that can make the delegation process simpler. However, to really get into the whole delegation process there are some myths that you will have to dispel from your thoughts.
1. Team members are already busy
As a leader, you may be grateful that your team members are busy and all involved in their own individual tasks but you may also worry about them being too busy and unable to take on more tasks. You may be concerned that being too busy will cause them to feel resentment.
However, the best way to get around this is to talk to the team members themselves. Ask them if they are open to more work. You would be surprised at how much work can be taken off your shoulders.
Asking is far better than assuming.
2. They will not meet the quality standards
The fact is you will be better at performing a task than your team members simply because you have spent a lot of time doing it. However, unless you believe that your team members can create quality output, you will never be able to delegate.
Always remember that your team is the best resource that your business has. By taking the time to build on their skills, you are making an investment into the future. Granted, they may not be able to work up to standards the first or second time. However, over time, their skill set will grow and they will be able to provide quality output.
3. I will finish faster
Of course, if you are the expert, your team members will not be able to complete the task as fast as you can. However, the alternative is being in a position where you cannot grow. The whole business stagnates because of this.
If you focus on the speed of finishing tasks, you will not see the bigger picture and the business will not grow any more than it already has.
Many big businesses unfortunately do not treat their workers in an ideal manner. Whether its management barking orders or the supervisor never letting the employee perform their tasks without breathing down their necks, this is simply inefficient management and undermines the creativity and the job satisfaction of the employee.
The small business or startup is often characterized by few employees and the business leader takes the time to acknowledge individual contribution to the company.
Many business leaders have recently become aware of the treatment of employees and have put in place policies for allocating more benefits to the employees. However, there is more that needs to be done. The great thing is there are those enterprise leaders that are pushing for workers to receive a share of the company profits including dividends.
These are some reasons why modern large businesses should maintain a startup mentality.
It can be disastrous to force changes on the workers
It is crucial for the employees to have a choice in the company matters. Since there are at the forefront of the day to day business, they will after all, be the first to come up with ideas on how processes and procedures can be improved.
Modern businesses see changes at light speed. Unfortunately, there are some managers that still believe that the best way forward is to do more talking and less listening.
Surprisingly, it is the management that needs to embrace change the most. The employees need to be allowed a voice and should not feel as though they are being controlled all the time.
This will also result in employees having more opportunities to grow as they share their ideas. Team members feel appreciated and valued and this increases job satisfaction and reduces turnover.
Employees want more than money
The younger workforce of millennials wants more than a well-paying job. They want a job that gives their lives meaning. In fact, studies show that millennials will gladly leave the organization for a lower paying job that offers greater fulfillment.
The main reasons why many businesses should maintain a startup mindset will often come down to a sense of belonging. If millennials are given the opportunity to make a difference, they will have greater job satisfaction than simply having a better pay.
As a business leader, it is important that you ask yourself, does the job offer my workers more than just a check at the end of the month? If the answer is no, then something needs to be done about it.
And there is good reason to keep a young workforce and the right company culture is key to maintaining your workforce. Being an autocratic leader is more likely to put off the younger worker force. They are the most energetic and have the best potential of skyrocketing the business to the nest level.
One excellent way of giving employees meaning in their jobs is allowing them time every day to work on what they think will benefit the business.
Creating the Ideal Company Culture
The company culture has the largest influence on employee job satisfaction and whether they enjoy working for the company or not.
Creating the perfect company culture however is not easy. It needs patience and somewhere along the way, the business leader is going to make mistakes. With the right ideals, and a willingness to create a workforce that enjoys working for your business, there are a few things that you can do.
Let’s find out!
1. Start off by hiring for skill, attitude as well as knowledge
When hiring your next employees, having the right skills and knowledge is crucial. Granted there will be new job skills that will be acquired once the employee is in training. However, it is important that the employee demonstrates what they are capable of doing. Only then will you be able to judge whether the candidate is right for the task or not.
During the interview, instead of just using buzzwords, the potential employee will show their knowledge of the subject matter. This makes training easier and ensures that you get someone who is capable.
But having the right skills and knowledge is just the first step. It is important the interviewee has the right attitude. You want to hire people who are likeable and who will integrate well with the rest of the workforce.
Try learning the individual at a more personal level and you can tell how likeable they are.
2. Make the hiring process more streamlined
The interview process can make or break the attitude of the candidate to your business. If it lengthy and has too many questions, the worker will be discouraged and will no longer have any enthusiasm to work for the company.
In fact, if another company offers the candidate a more attractive offer, they will prefer that company over yours.
Always make sure that the interview process is simple and doesn’t make the interviewee feel threatened. Also ensure that you follow up and send feedback to the potential employee whether or not they got the position.
Do not completely eliminate them from future positions and assure them that they will get first priority when there is another position in the company.
3. Make your employees comfortable
If you want your employees to enjoy coming to the office every day, it is important to put measures in place to make their work environment more comfortable.
Some savvy business leaders will go as far as having inhouse acupuncture or holding parties and comedy shows for their employees. All this is great but not always necessary.
You can maintain a healthy and thriving workforce, by providing a few basic essentials such as office space filled with natural light, fresh air and allowing them to personalize their work area.
You can so make sure that the equipment is up to date as well as adding a few green plants that bring a bit of life and color to the working area.
Note however that managing a young workforce requires skill and a good business leader will know how to bring everyone together.
How To Manage a Young Workforce
While the goals of managing every workforce is to bring people together, it is important to understand that managing a young workforce is not the same as managing an older workforce. Since they have different needs, the approach on management needs to be different in order to bring everyone in sync.
A younger workforce has greater demands and these demands are also more intensive. For one, the younger generation requires a greater sense of job flexibility, as well as participation in business objectives. They want to do something that has meaning and want to know that their actions are directly impacting the business in a positive way.
Millennials are first and foremost in search of a company culture that is more open. The business environment needs to adapt by having fewer departments. Granted what one business does may not apply to all businesses, but you can get valuable information from understanding what the younger generation requires.
Communication is key and according to a recent study, companies that have invested in good communication systems provide 47 percent more profit to their shareholders than companies that have not invested in proper communication channels.
Simply put, if you are dealing with a smaller and younger team that is highly energetic, you can increase the business revenue significantly by boosting communication. All you have to do is listen to your young workforce and understand their needs and requirements. From here you can tailor the right communication channels to them.
This is the age of social media and almost all tasks are digitalized. The human resource department thus needs to work even harder to ensure that the office is running as expected. Consider that almost everyone who is under 40 years old is using a social media channel. As a business leader, it is important to consider applying similar channels of communication. Simply put sending an email is more likely to be ignored than sending a slack conversation.
Once you understand this, you can incorporate into your own business. You will need to put a two-way communication channel to the organization. You can do this by putting in place an open reporting system where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. The employees also need to know what management is planning.
Also talk to the employees. Find out about their worries and concerns and use that information to come up with proper communication channels. After doing this, you need to share your views to them to get the young workforce conversant with your plans. You can then sell them your ideas and internal protocols.
However, all this is faced by certain challenges top of which is selling the idea to the CEO and the business leaders. There is every chance that providing such an idea will be met with a certain level of resistance.
As a business leader however, you should aim at ensuring that the right communication channels are in place. Stand firm with your decisions and see to it that your ideas are implemented.
Once you have the right communication channels in place, use them to provide positive feedback to your employees.
Why Business leaders Need to Make Use of Positive Feedback
Feedback is not always about telling your team members where they need to improve. It is also important to complement them where they have performed well. Many workers will tell you that their boss is yet to give them any positive feedback and will often receive much criticism when they have underperformed.
A positive feedback is a direct, effective and sophisticated way to encourage positive behaviors in the business. But there is a right way to provide positive feedback.
Providing compliments
Complimenting team members for performing well in their work will automatically increase their morale. In turn, their productivity goes up.
On the other hand, team members who work extra hard on their job but don’t receive any acknowledgement will be demoralized.
Some leaders simply believe that people should not be complemented if they are being payed to do their job. However human psychology proves otherwise.
Being specific
Avoid being vague in your compliments. Be specific and tell the team members exactly why you are complementing them and what part of the task appealed to you.
The compliment and acknowledgement will have a greater effect and appear more real.
Elements of a positive feedback
Start by using positive terms such as excellent, great, and wonderful. When you give the compliment, be specific on what was good about the work or presentation.
Also talk about the results of the actions of the team member such as increased revenue, and greater efficiency.
End the compliment by thanking them.
Don’t add in any criticism
Make sure that you do not add in a negative feedback while giving your positive feedback.
Note that in a meeting, there may be need to talk about what can be improved as well. However, giving a positive feedback on its own is enough to provide a significant effect as well.
Write it down
After giving a positive feedback, you can also put it in writing such as sending a note or sending an email to the team member.
A hand written note feels more personal in this digital era.
Let all the other team members know
The positive feedback will have a greater effect if it sent during a meeting. After all, it is always the best to praise in public and correct in private.
When you want to give negative feedback, call the team member to the office and have a private conversation. Do not do this in front of the other team members as this can create a feeling of resentment.
Also, it’s a good idea to have a specific time of day to give positive feedback and to do this regularly. The aim is to boost the self-esteem of the workers. This can have a huge impact on their productivity.
Another major benefit of positive feedback is employee satisfaction. Team members feel content in their place of work when the leader shows them that they are making an impact in the business. This will reduce the rate of employee turnover.
Having a workforce that enjoys working for the business makes it that much easier to delegate tasks and focus more on where the business is headed. Delegating however demands patience.
Learning How to Delegate Tasks
Delegating work as a business leader is one of the hardest choices you can make. It is not easy to trust that someone else will complete the work in time and maintain the same level of high-quality standards that you do. However, failing to delegate will often leave you with too much work, leave you feeling overwhelmed and burned out at the end of the day.
There is great benefit to learning how to delegate. You are able to focus on other tasks and you will not be as emotionally and physically drained.
Delegation is important for any business leader. Why? Because you are also able to develop the strengths of your individual team members. As a result, your collective strength increases. As a leader you can focus on the future and the direction of the business without being clogged up by the weeds.
And when it is all said and done, delegation helps you remain sane by not having too much on your mind.
Many business leaders however will struggle with delegation. The good thing is that you have access to tools that can make the delegation process simpler. However, to really get into the whole delegation process there are some myths that you will have to dispel from your thoughts.
1. Team members are already busy
As a leader, you may be grateful that your team members are busy and all involved in their own individual tasks but you may also worry about them being too busy and unable to take on more tasks. You may be concerned that being too busy will cause them to feel resentment.
However, the best way to get around this is to talk to the team members themselves. Ask them if they are open to more work. You would be surprised at how much work can be taken off your shoulders.
Asking is far better than assuming.
2. They will not meet the quality standards
The fact is you will be better at performing a task than your team members simply because you have spent a lot of time doing it. However, unless you believe that your team members can create quality output, you will never be able to delegate.
Always remember that your team is the best resource that your business has. By taking the time to build on their skills, you are making an investment into the future. Granted, they may not be able to work up to standards the first or second time. However, over time, their skill set will grow and they will be able to provide quality output.
3. I will finish faster
Of course, if you are the expert, your team members will not be able to complete the task as fast as you can. However, the alternative is being in a position where you cannot grow. The whole business stagnates because of this.
If you focus on the speed of finishing tasks, you will not see the bigger picture and the business will not grow any more than it already has.
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