Success is not a Solitary Journey

Success is not a solitary journey. The most successful CEOs, Presidents and Entrepreneurs that I’ve encountered have built a powerful network to assist them along their journey. They surround themselves with peers, trusted advisers, coaches, financial advisers, accountants, lawyers and even personal trainers. There is no end to the network one can build if open to the possibilities.

But, you may have noticed that there is a significant group missing from this list. Any ideas as to who they are?

Every successful leader is surrounded by a supportive team. Interestingly though, most of the business leaders and entrepreneurs I interviewed for my book from McGraw Hill agreed that employees were not always high on the list of a success network.

Why?

When I asked this very question the response I received was simple. An Executive or Business Owner can choose (and change) their network of advisers, peers and friends quite easily, however changing out employees within the business is often more difficult. Tightly bound union contracts, skilled labor shortages and a general dis-taste for termination topped the list of reasons as to why this is.

This being said, because we don’t have the same freedoms to manage and select our employees as we often do with advisers, there is a greater disparity in identifying the optimum methods to motivate, energize and incentivize employees. For this reason I wanted to share a few of the methods that I’ve helped clients incorporate to improve the productivity and motivation of their staff, with the intent that you can do the same.

Three ideas to motivate your employees to higher levels of productivity:

1. Loosen the reigns. Stop holding employees to a lower standard. Expect more of them and allow them an opportunity to rise to the occasion. I can tell you a dozen stories of my clients who found a diamond in the rough working in an administrative role who is now running a division or leading the company simply because a previous CEO or President took a chance and allowed them the opportunity to grow.

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2. Growth through failure. As you know success comes with it’s ups and downs, often more of the later. This said, why are we so prone to avoiding the opportunities to let our employees fail? We have to be selective of course, but allowing employees to fail builds character, resilience and dedication to finding success. Stop thinking of failure as a bad thing.

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3. The Power of Three. Put two employees together in a room and it won’t be long before they are thinking and agreeing on most everything including world views, business and politics. Put three into a room however and the dynamics change. The “third wheel” often ensures that group thinking doesn’t have an opportunity to manifest itself. This results in increased diversity and ingenuity. Are you shaking up the ranks by incorporating the Power of Three?

Question: How are you maximizing the return on your investment in employees? What can you change in how you and your managers interact with employees to spur increased motivation and ingenuity?

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.