Competitiveness Through Employees
Your business is nothing more than the sum of all the people who work within and with it. Its competitive success is derived from the combined strength of its people. Your approach should be competitiveness through employees by building trust and engagement.
Many family business leaders would say that they treat all their employees like they are extended family members. But that type of relationship may not yield the best outcome for those employees and also the business.
Today ‘employees’ really includes everyone who works within and with your business. The traditional model of lifelong full-time employees has truly passed, however, it is still essential you engage with your employees well in order for your business to be successful.
Fail to build trust and engagement with them and your business will never achieve its potential. If you trust someone, you should believe and have faith that they do, and will, act with your best interests at the forefront. That they will act with honesty and sincerity and will certainly not put their own personal interests ahead of yours.
Viewing your business as if it were a person (yes, a person) provides another lens through which to view your business and its performance. It allows you to see the ‘human dynamic’ in your business and to build activities around that framework. It will strengthen your engagement by allowing you to see:
- Purpose rather than work.
- Habits rather than processes.
- Motive rather than monetary rewards.
- Relationships rather than hierarchical structures.
- Character traits rather than competencies.
Trust and engagement are what your employee relationships must build. And each generation of leaders will also need to re-establish this trust and engagement as they come to the helm of leadership.
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