Communication and listening to your employees. The key to success

During my working life, I have met a lot of business owners/founders that forget at times that simple things can lead to greater success, the below is extremely relevant in the success of any business and is more often than not forgotten or not cared about due to some CEO’s and Business owners saying “well my employees are happy they have a job and they should work harder than me”.

I see that as an archaic way of thinking and have a strong belief that employees can care and will work hard, but the owner should be the hardest worker, you have the equity in the company, and the willingness to make it a success should be paramount to how hard you need to be working. That does not mean that you need to be doing every task in the company but you need to be doing more as your drive, vision, and strengths and weaknesses are on show to all.

Businesses generally don’t spend enough time listening to their staff, suppliers, and in some ways customers. But the place where you get the highest ROI is when you listen to your employees. Retention on an employee level is essential and happiness is crucial because it leads to speed and caring, speed and caring are one of the best competitive advantages against your competitors and the belief and trust your clients and potential clients place in your product and service.

If you manage people and take away the drama and politics found in a vast majority of companies and take time to sit down with some of your employees. By sitting down I don’t mean delegating to your subordinates but do it yourself and allow yourself to find out what they care about or what is most important to them today, be it work-life balance, money, their role/position/title in your company.

If you have employees that are significantly important to your success and you have not sat down with him/her or them separately then take the time and take them to lunch/dinner and have an actual conversation with them. Don’t be over-reliant on them and not care, yes you rely on them but that bond you make through a simple conversation and showing empathy will help save you from failing or having to rebuild should that person leave.

Be a big enough person to have that talk and get that feedback be it negative or positive both will be of help to your companies success.

In business, a lot of people show empathy but in turn lack it when it comes to your brand ambassadors and employees. Your employees are your greatest asset, they are the voice and face of your company and the way they deliver services and products to your clients is of the utmost importance. They will mirror the empathy shown to them by making sure the speed and caring will forever remain your most important competitive advantage.