Your business might be doing well, but if your workforce doesn’t feel any sort of personal connection to your business’s mission, that could prevent lasting success. You want to boost employee morale and make them happy about their work. To reinvigorate your employees’ passion for your business’s mission, try a few of these tips. Walk the talk. Patagonia CEO Yvon Chouinard decided to make his products out of organic cotton after he saw how industrially grown cotton was hurting the environment. It cost more to do that, but he stuck to Patagonia’s mission of creating environmentally friendly products. If you’re not willing to sacrifice for your mission, then it’s not your mission — and your employees will know it. Make it clear. Make sure everyone at your company knows exactly what your mission is. Only when employees have a clear understanding of the goal can they actually abide by it. If your mission statement can be interpreted in multiple ways, clarify it throughout all levels of your business. Speak passionately about it. While you want the mission itself to be exciting, even the most intriguing of mission statements will be DOA if your delivery doesn’t convey your excitement. Humans are emotional creatures, so connecting with your employees emotionally in regard to your mission is just as important as the mission itself. Make it personal. While you might think tying your personal story to the company’s mission seems narcissistic, the truth is that your team wants to hear your story. People like stories, and if you can convey yours with honesty and humility, no one will think you’re an egoist. Re-work it. If your mission doesn’t seem to be inspiring passion in your workforce, then maybe it’s time to tweak it a little bit. Whether you’re just starting in business or have had the same mission statement for 10 years, a new mission lived out, made clear, and made personal by you can spark a newfound appreciation for your business among your employees. CONNECTING YOUR EMPLOYEES TO YOUR MISSION Making Your Passions Their Passions
DON’T LET FEAR DICTATE YOUR
When you find success and make a bit of money, suddenly everyone wants a piece, and they’ll use intimidation to get it. This includes your employees, customers, and partners. One of the biggest challenges of running a business is learning to handle confrontations without letting fear dictate your decisions. Consider the scenario presented in the cover article. Imagine you’re the owner of the lawn care business, and you’ve just learned one of your employees is poaching your customers.What should you do? “Fire him” is the logical answer, but logic often takes a back seat to fear.What if the backstabbing employee is your best worker, and your company will suffer without him? What if he threatens to take more staff with him unless you keep him on, or worse, give him a raise? In either of those scary scenarios, many business owners would give in and let the employee go unpunished. When you let fear win, you become a washrag. You set a precedent that anybody can come in and wring you out. Give in when an employee demands a raise or a customer pressures you for a discount and they’ll keep coming back until they’ve wrung you dry. To solve this, you need to learn how to control your fear. As Warren Buffett said, “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.” BUSINESS DECISIONS! Run Your Company Like a Honey Badger, Not aWashrag
When you’re facing a confrontation, take these three steps:
1. Identify your emotions. The first step to overcoming your fear is recognizing it. Once you do, you can check yourself before reacting on impulse. 2. Breathe. During a confrontation, never speak or act out of emotion. Instead, take a deep breath and count to 10 before you respond. 3. Outlast the opposition. You can control the situation if you simply refuse to play ball. Let the other side threaten, beg, and bully you until they run out of ammunition. Then, make the logical decision. Randy uses these techniques, and his friends have nicknamed him the Honey Badger after the most fearless critter in the animal kingdom. Next time someone confronts you, channel your inner honey badger to take them down.
“You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.”
2 • www.sklartechnology.com .................................................................................... Security. Availability. Support.
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs