Empowering Your Employees

When you own a business, you’re accountable for its success. However, if you have a strong, entrepreneurial team supporting you, you can be confident in relying upon them to make daily decisions without your direct input. In an Inc.com article, “A Culture of Entrepreneurship: Why You Must Build It in Your Business,” Sonia Thompson discusses how to hire or develop a team that can support your business goals even when you’re not around.

In addition to hiring team members who already demonstrate initiative and critical thinking skills, you need to build a team of entrepreneurs, Thompson explains. She offers the following three tips to assist you with fostering your team’s development:

• Encourage strategic risk taking. As all business owners know, even starting your business is a risk; growing it involves even more. Allow your team to drive change, and make sure they know that failing won’t be the end of their employment.
• Frequently connect your team to your customers. Allowing the team to work directly with clients will add to your ability to serve them. It will also help foster strong relationships, which means that, even when you are unavailable, your clients can confidently turn to staff members in whom they trust with their needs.
• Celebrate your team’s individuality. When building a team that will support your vision, don’t stress conformity. Whether they’re diverse in culture, ethnicity, or background, encourage their unique talents.

Building your team’s confidence to take ownership of their responsibilities and work with you – not for you – can further add to your business’s success.

For additional details on building your team of entrepreneurs, read the full article at Inc.com.