JAN 2015
Ownership.
Consistency.
There’s no two ways about it: everyone wants a piece of
the action. Profit sharing, equity, whatever your
capitalization model, you need to reward the folks you
want to keep around for the long haul with long-term
incentives.
If your employees huddle every morning to find out what
kind of mood you’re in, that’s a bad sign. Nobody wants to
work for a workplace version of an abusive alcoholic
parent. We all have issues. Keep them in your head where
they belong, don’t bring them to work.
Perks.
Lose the self-serving surveys.
Free food, free drinks, business class international travel, a
place to work out or blow off some steam, weekly parties –
don’t ask me why but perks go a long way. Just figure out
what you can afford, what makes sense and then stick to it.
Once you give them something, there’s nothing worse than
taking it away.
More often these days companies are expanding the
ubiquitous annual employee surveys to include more
frequent, even weekly, pulse surveys. Why? Because most
employee surveys are self-serving and in smaller
companies they’re completely worthless. If you’re really
that out of touch with what’s going on at your company,
you’re not doing your job effectively.
Recognition and appreciation.
When your people go above and beyond and accomplish
something great, like hitting an aggressive product-launch
schedule on budget, let them know you and the company
appreciate them by giving them some public recognition.
Just keep it rare so it doesn’t lose its impact.
One more thing. Don’t get caught up in all the emotional
intelligence hype. It’s nothing but a fad. You don’t need a
book, a seminar or some dumb test a child could game to
tell you how to be a great boss. Use a little common sense,
pay attention to what’s going on and be aware of how
you’re acting. It isn’t rocket science.
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