Anyone who is running a business or has direct reports, knows the challenges that successfully managing and motivating staff can bring.
In fact, people management and attracting the right talent was rated as one of the top concerns in our latest No More Practice surveys.
When it comes to managing people, I have learned a lot in the last 14 years of running a business. But I certainly don’t know it all and still find myself surprised all the time. One of the most surprising phenomenons for me as a business owner was when I realised that the opposite of what I thought about people was true.
As the owner, I believed you had to shield the team from the stresses you faced, work harder than them as a good example, stay involved in the work they were doing to achieve the best outcome, and accept that they had their own lives and issues and would be off the clock once it was past 6pm.
At face value, and for many years, this proved to be true for me. Or so I thought. I soon realised that there was a very different and far better way to work with your team – give them greater ownership of their output.
What do I mean by this? It can be explained in three areas of focus:
- Don’t assume your team don’t want responsibility. In fact, it seems that responsibility is exactly what gets the best performance and results. Great people want to own their own areas and have greater control over their own output. I believe the more people ‘own’ their area, the better they perform. I’ve also found that talented people want to be challenged and become an integral piece of the businesses success – so allow them to be.
- Don’t shield them from the truth. If times are tough, let them know. Often, they will be part of the solution. They will also know when it is time to tighten the belt, or work harder. The truth is exactly what great people need to deliver better results for the business.
- Don’t keep interfering in their workload. While it is great to check in, you will never get people delivering their best if they can’t make their own mistakes and have their own success. Like being a parent, sometimes you need to pull back and let people figure it out for themselves. Because when they do, they become more empowered and more valuable to the business.
If you do change your views on what your team can do, you will find you have more time work ON your business rather than in it, and do the things you need to do to capitalise on the opportunities you have to grow. It also means you have a workplace that is happy, motivated and generally a great place to be.
Who can argue with that!
Join the conversation with Vanessa on Twitter @ceovanessa
Vanessa Stoykov is the creator of No More Practice, and founder of the parent company, evolution media group. She has over 20 years’ experience in financial services as both a journalist and business owner. She is an award winning chief executive who is passionate about creating education and communications to help the wealth industry and consumers fulfill their prosperity potential.
