As an entrepreneur, there will come a time when you need to take on staff to help your venture to expand. Resting on your laurels doesn’t sit well with you and you want to become a market leader in your field. To do this you need to create a cohesive and productive team. As a savvy boss, you need to facilitate an environment in which your team can thrive. You also need to show respect to your employees, communicate effectively, and get buy in to your business vision. If you can make your employees care about their work, they will work hard and be productive. Morphing from employee to entrepreneur and then onto boss is challenging. However, by following this guide, you can become a savvy boss and see your business thrive.
Communicate
The most important aspect of being a savvy boss is communication. There’s nothing worse for an employee when their boss is rarely seen or heard from and they turn into some sort of mythical beast. You need to show your face on the office floor once in a while and have an open door policy. Have set times throughout the week when your staff can individually come to your office and chat with you about concerns, ideas, and problems.
Set up a Monday morning briefing every week where you can meet with your staff face to face. Doing this demonstrates that you value them enough to not just send out an email. Being there in person means that you can communicate the week’s targets, what went well the previous week, and any industry news that you think may be relevant. If you are looking to launch a new initiative for your startup, this is the perfect forum to get the views of your team. Ask for their ideas, make notes, and give credit to any ideas that you end up implementing.
Send out an email every Friday afternoon to namecheck those people who have gone the extra mile or who have produced some exceptional work. If Janice has secured an elusive and high profile client for your company, call it out and celebrate it. This shows your team how valued they are and how much you respect them. This boosts morale and productivity, making your team content in their roles.
Perks
While it may sound a little gimmicky, there is nothing wrong with having some perks for your team. Meeting targets need to be incentive-driven, so consider bonuses other than monetary rewards. To get the most out of your staff, think about giving bonus days off for those individuals who exceed their targets. When the festive season comes around, make sure that you consider corporate holiday gifts from GThankYou as a way of showing your staff just how much you appreciate their hard graft. When Christmas arrives, morale is generally up and people look forward to spending quality time with their families. A free turkey or ham can be just the perk they need.
Away-days shouldn’t be of the boring variety. There’s only so many times that you can build a bridge as a team to try and get across a river of imaginary crocodiles safely. Instead, you need to consider days away to outdoor survival weekends or panic rooms. These more fun environments get your team to work together to achieve a goal. You will also have the opportunity to get to know your staff team as people rather than merely employees.
Environment
The environment that you create as a boss is crucial to how productive your team is. If your office is cold, damp, and drafty, you have paint peeling from the walls and the beige carpet tiles have seen better days, you need to improve the decor. Brighten up the interior by whipping out the white paint, add touches of greenery, and replace the carpet for some lighter laminate. Change the lighting, inject some industrial styling with fixtures and fittings, and replace the desktop booths for some collaborative working pods. There’s nothing more morale-boosting for employees than to head into a dynamic and exciting office first thing in the morning. If your staff team are content where they are working and they are comfortable in their office chair, they will work harder for you.
The environment that you facilitate will have a dramatic impact on how productive your team is. You may even find that you have less turnover of staff because of it. While it may sound unbelievable, the decor of your workplace could be the difference between surviving and thriving as a business.
Take a look at these inspiring ideas and make it your mission to become a savvy boss. You can create a productive and cohesive team to help your startup go from strength to strength.
