Transforming Your Employees Into Fans
While you might not want your employees showing up to work each day wearing blue war paint on their face, or elaborate costumes to show their support for your company team, the bottom line is that if you want the very best from your employees, they’ve got to be more than “just” employees. They’ve got to be real, diehard fans. The question though is how to get them to that level? It’s more art than science, but we’ll outline some of the ways you can get them to that threshold. When you do get them there, you’ll be amazed at the results.
You – Your Own Biggest Promoter
It all starts with you. That’s true no matter how big your company is, but it’s especially true if you run a small to medium-sized business. From a practical standpoint, that means you’ve got to be positively Evangelical about your company’s purpose and mission. You’ve got to be excited about it, and more importantly, you’ve got to let that excitement show every single day, and in every interaction with your employees.
That kind of thing is contagious. If they see you doing it, they’ll catch the fever and start doing it too. What’s encoded in this type of thinking is that when your employees start to “catch the fever,” they’ll begin to see the company as their own. They feel like they’ve got a genuine stake in the future of things, and in the company’s direction.
Transparency is Key
Hand in hand with the above is the notion of transparency. A lot of business leaders pay little more than lip service to this idea, but the more transparent you are, the more easily your employees see how all the bits fit together, including what their own job adds to the company’s momentum. That builds on the point above. Once they see exactly how their own contributions fit into the overall mission, the more excited they get about their participation.
Tear Down Barriers, Get Rid of Roadblocks
As the company’s owner, you’ve got to wear an almost innumerable number of hats every day, but one of those absolutely must be that of “Wrecking Ball Operator.” Your primary goal when wearing this hat? To utterly demolish any obstacle that stands in the way of your people’s ability to conduct the business of your business. The more highly visible you are in the conduct of this role, the more your employees will flock to you. It’s a tangible sign that you’ve got their back, and when they see that you do, they’ll have yours. That in turn feeds into the growing sense of excitement about the company.
Let Them Be Stars In Your Constellation
Your company is a constellation. A constellation is a collection of stars. Stars, by definition, aren’t Jacks-of-all-trades, but rather, epic performers in one area. To be sure, in a smaller company, everybody has to wear multiple hats, but when you hired your people, you probably hired them for a specific purpose or singular talent they possessed. The rest of their skills are important. They matter, but if you want to see your employees elevated to the status of fans, you need to give them every opportunity to be the star performers in the area you hired them to be. Let them be at their best and they’ll reward you for it.
