A great company doesn’t have the best best products and services it has the best people, and we all want to be engaged in our work regardless of where we sit either as an employee or as a business owner.

Employees want to be happy and feel like they are contributing to the business as well as getting the opportunities to grow themselves, business owners on the other hand want their staff to be committed to the strategy, to the goals and of course the vision of the business. Over the last 3 years I have witnessed our Sydney team grow from three people to a team of ten and as a result I have personally had to take a hard look at myself and the way we not only grow Crucial in to the future but most importantly how I will grow myself to ensure that we continue to drive excellence from our staff and quality of service for our customers. Lately I have put a lot of thought into what are the key drivers for employee engagement and I have listed the four key elements that I believe every business needs to get right before they even consider growing past their current size.

Culture Rocks!

Here’s a tip, always short list based on skill set but hire only based on culture fit, there you go I just saved you a lot of awkward conversations. So how do you hire based on a culture fit? Well if you have to ask how you either haven’t created a culture or you don’t know what yours is so let’s dig a little deeper. It’s pretty simple, picture the culture that you want and model the behavior. If you want a strong positive culture within your business it starts with you so make sure that you display exceptional behavior that sets the standards and the expectations for the people around you. Some of the ingredients you want to include are a positive can do attitude, motivation even when times are tough, celebrating wins and of course optimism.

Personal Growth

Everyone wants to improve so make sure that your environment provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Take down any walls to learning and create an environment that endorses learning and if possible offer a training allowance to your staff. The key with Personal Growth is not to manage the development for you staff but rather provide the tools so that they can develop their own plan. I wrote an article recently on creating personal SMART goals which is a great way of getting started with personal planning.

Recognition and Rewards

Recognition is so important in ensuring your staff are staying motivated and believe it or not this can be as simple as a pat on the back, a public mention preferably in a team meeting or taking a staff member out to lunch. At Crucial we like to take the team out for drinks and we have quarterly functions to celebrate our wins and of course any lessons we have learned. What about monetary rewards you’re thinking? If you would like to give monetary rewards consider mixing a public mention along with a gift card or even better wait until you have to do an annual review and reward your staff with a bonus for the work they have completed above and beyond for the year past.

Leadership

No one is born a leader so everyone by this logic can become a incredible one! There is no perfect mix however a good leader will display a number of characteristics some of which I have outlined below.

• Stays calm under pressure
• Recognises and natures potential
• Questions more than talks
• Focuses on being positive
• Encourages risk taking
• Rewards success and failure
• Is available for their staff
• Is committed to success
• Is confident
• Has a drive to improve and works on their own personal development

Running a business or team can be challenging but it’s also one of the most exciting things you can do. Do you currently get lost in in the day to day running of you business or team? If so take a step back and look at how you can manage lead your most valuable asset, your people.