MODERN LEADERSHIP

by , all of which add immense value to the employee experience at RedBalloon . I believe they can also be used as a personal yardstick :

1Invest time and energy in creating your ( business ) values – and then embrace and live by them . Once you have your values in place this creates a perfect grounding for everything people related .

2If you do recruit people , think of

HR as an experience – not how you use humans as resources , but rather how those people are able to experience and engage with your business .

3Invest in yourself and your people leaders – you can have all the ideas and new innovations in the world , but if you aren ’ t engaged with what you are trying to achieve , you won ’ t get buy in .

4Be authentic . In a workspace , that means allow people to come to work as themselves and not their

job titles – people will always have good and bad days and managers need to accept that . Apply the same authenticity to your personal life . ( Apparently 90 % of all men on first dates are dishonest to some degree .)

5Get to know who your people really are and what makes them tick – how do they like their coffee ? Do they even drink coffee ? What are their pet peeves ? Do they like private or public recognition ? The more you know – the more it actually shows you care about them as individuals .

One of the ways that we increase our success - is letting people know exactly what it would be like to work with us ... so we produced a 2 minute video and stuck it on you tube . It really talks about what we stand for ( view below ).

You need to be a smart business leader – and operator – to build a business full of people with smarts . As a leader you have a responsibility to work harder on yourself than on your business . Only then will you be able to create the team you deserve . Because , after all , they are a reflection of yourself - take a good hard look in the mirror .

Naomi Simson is founder of fastgrowth experiential gifting retailer www . redballoon . com . au . An employee engagement advocate and sought after employer , RedBalloon is listed as one of only six Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand with an engagement score of over 90 percent . Comments and questions can be sent to Naomi via her blog at naomisimson . com

May 2016 ModernBusiness 59

Modern Business Magazine May 2016 | Page 59

1Invest time and energy in creating your ( business ) values – and then embrace and live by them . Once you have your values in place this creates a perfect grounding for everything people related .

2If you do recruit people , think of

3Invest in yourself and your people leaders – you can have all the ideas and new innovations in the world , but if you aren ’ t engaged with what you are trying to achieve , you won ’ t get buy in .

4Be authentic . In a workspace , that means allow people to come to work as themselves and not their

5Get to know who your people really are and what makes them tick – how do they like their coffee ? Do they even drink coffee ? What are their pet peeves ? Do they like private or public recognition ? The more you know – the more it actually shows you care about them as individuals .