How to Get Ahead in Business

I had the great fortune today to spend time with a man who in one conversation taught me volumes about the kind of employer I’d like to be.

I’d like to see the value in each of my staff, recognizing that many of them will be able to do things I could never do myself, and furthermore are likely to already be able to do the things I can do even better than me.

I would like to cast the vision of my business to my team in such a way that they too can catch the vision, but I’d also like my team to know that my vision is useless without them being involved.  I’d like my team to feel like we’re all in it together.

I’d like to pay my team every penny of what they’re worth, not just in current employment terms but every penny that they’re worth to me as people with families depending on them and as co-workers in the vision of my business, bringing my dreams to pass.

I’d like my team to value the people they come in to contact with in the course of my business as more than just a means to an end, but as people with lives and families of their own who we’re partnering with to make their dreams happen too.

I’d like my business to have a heart not just for my community but for our planet as well.

I would like to be open to the ideas of my team; I’d like to be able to value their input into my business without feeling threatened. 

I believe that getting my team on board with where we’re going owes more to my belief in them than it does to me telling them where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.  Of course, telling us where we’re going is important, but I’d like to be open to their input about the journey to that destination.

This is the kind of employer I want to be.  Amazes me that I heard it from the mouth of an un-lettered builder from Harbord (and one who prefesses no association with God or the church).

Of course, this is all dependent on me wanting to own a business that employs more than just me… I really can’t see that far ahead!!  Right now, all I want to do is blog, and code.

Sigh.  Decisions, Decisions.