[mp3]http://wordandmouth.com/audio/lovestaff_240909.mp3[/mp3]

Sometimes when business gets on top of you – your business is running you, rather than the other way around – you lose focus on the important stuff while obsessing over the minutiae. It happens to us all. Some people call it stress, I call it overworked.

The most important part of business is doing business. Not fussing, but just doing what you do best – building relationships, and capitalising on all the time and effort it takes to make them happen.

If you are busy, and let’s face it that’s no bad thing in this rainy economic climate, you may overlook crucial relationships that need developing, expanding or simply nurturing to reveal their true worth to you and your business.

So as well as you external customers, you have to really flex your charisma and powers of commercial seduction over your internal customers. Keeping your employees happy is perhaps the most closely guarded secret of most successful companies. For if you and your staff are walking around with a permanent cloud over your heads, your customers will probably notice before you – and vote against the Precipitation Party with their feet.

Don’t let it get to that. Coddle your crew.

Let them be creative. Give them some time every week, even if it’s just an hour, to work on personal projects. Make sure they’re relevant to the business but set their minds free of the rat race. Google, Microsoft and HP are famous for allocating time to employees’ schedules for them to embark on ambitious opportunities that ultimately a. put smiles on faces, b. increase overall productivity, and c. often drives product and service development. Legion are the examples of business success generated from focused creative energy.

Value every comment. From my own experience and that of my colleagues when working for American businesses, it becomes tiring to contribute at meetings or in front of the boss when you’re heckled or jockeyed. I consider this behaviour on the part of the manager and meeting host both the epitome of arrogance and incompetence. In the Utopian company in my head – which, if you’d like to know, is a paragon of virtue, efficiency and staffed largely by waitresses from Hooters – everyone gets a fair roll of the dice. No idea is discounted at face value. Every contribution is merited and staff get benefits for mooting innovative ways to streamline and improve the business. And thus everyone is happy since they feel empowered and an invaluable part of a community of friends working for a common and respected goal.

Let them eat cake. How much does it cost in real terms to provide free fruit and water? Maybe even chocolate bars on Fridays? The comped snacks idea is perhaps a metaphor for a caring attitude. Whatever you contribute is a drop in the ocean compared to what you get back. Consider it karma. Devote time and effort to your staff and they will repay you in productivity, smiles and customer service.

Do as I do. The very best business managers and owners don’t just talk the talk – they’re out on the shop floor every day doing the jobs of their employees. A very famous chap whose name eludes me set up a series of oil refineries. At the launch of every one, he’d go round and work next to a staffer in every area of the business. He would gain trust, loyalty and empathy from everyone he worked with. And thus the coveted relationships he sought to make the business successful were set in stone. To make sure things were ticking over nicely throughout the life of the refineries he’d return time and again to applaud, graft and respect. Which leads us on to

R E S P E C T. The most important thing of all. Why it’s down here and not up there eludes my sanity. Maybe because it’s the most straightforward and logical element of being a proprietor. To care. To listen. To indulge, on occasion. To be a friend, mentor and muse. To on occasion entertain. Treat your employees like good friends. Good friends will do anything for you – that’s the name of the business game.

Finally: Lead, don’t manage. You know the direction you want to take the business. Your associates will be looking to you for that vision. To be guided. And to be a leader means empowering your staff to do their best to take you there. You have to be a communicator, a teacher and a voyager. To communicate the news, the way ahead. To teach staff how to become leaders themselves; leaders of their own destiny as well as leaders of companies in the future; and a voyager to chart the path of success through uncertain environments and challenging climates. Hell, you’re already in one. Smiling? You’re halfway there.

Don’t forget that effective communication is equally important when dealing with suppliers, too. Give them the same treatment as you would your friends and staff, and you’ve got all your bases covered.

Now lead!

Useful resources:
How to motivate your staff
Leading staff the Business Link way
How to empower staff by delegating