People and the society in general, would inquire your Startup employees as to where they work ? , how they feel working in a Startup. As a CEO Entrepreneur, you would expect your Startup Employees to take the Name of your Company with pride.
No Entrepreneur would like their Startup employees to say : ‘ It’s like working in hell ‘ ‘ My last job was much better’ , ‘They don’t know the industry practices’ ‘ New company yet, amateurs ‘ ‘ Never Work for such Startup’ . For this, as an Entrepreneur, one needs to infuse ‘inspiration & pride’ amongst the Startup Employees. We have noted some 14 ways in which you can do so:
Solicit an Employee’s advice for solving a problem : Employees need to feel that they are contributing and as a Startup entrepreneur you shall sometimes not be equipped with employees in huge numbers and quality. Hence it becomes important, both from business point of view as well as from motivation point of view , that you solicit an employee for solving a problem faced by your startup. Its possible that you may end up in a solution that never occurred to you.
Lead by Example: It is imperative that you can give only what you possess. Hence first you as a CEO has to show your inspiration in your startup business. Only then would it be viral amongst your employees.
Spend your time amongst your Employees: Show your Startup employees how much you care about them and their work. Appreciate their work. Show gratitude. Walk around the office with a smile on your face. It’s contagious. You can even drop into them for a breakfast or lunch.
Walk The Talk : Ensure that both your conduct as well as your management team are characterized by the highest level of ethics.
Give your startup employees, leaders, to whom they can look upon to.
Build self-directed Teams: Employees often dislike too much of supervision. Its been noticed that employees perform their best and take pride in what they do themselves, without close supervision. Its is also important to set up competition among teams.
Direct Customer connect : Let your startup employees meet and serve your customers directly in daily matters. Else employees in support roles may spend their entire careers sitting inside their cubicles , without meeting people [ clients] who actually pay for their salaries.
Familiarize your ‘Startup Movement’ : Your employees must know what your startup means, to you as well as to the world outside. Only when you frame your startup as a Movement , rather than just a daily job, would your employees take pride and be passionate about the company they work in.
Hire competent & skilled peers : Not just competent & skilled, but your employees must be cheerful, smiling, courteous, optimistic and enthusiastic in all ways. A good co-workers solves half of your job as an entrepreneur to motivate your employees.
Family : Entrepreneurs must not only sponsor family oriented events , but also care about the family of the employees health and well being. Bonding with the employee family goes is a long term investment for any entrepreneur. A company needs to conduct wellness or safety programs whereby they can involve family members as well.
Spread the Success News: Every employee is fervent to know how the Startup is performing. A cyclic report would do wonders in this case. It can be done by starting an internal bulletin published by the employees themselves. A separate editing and publishing team can be formed for this newsletter to be distributed internally amid your startup.
Training Programs: Give the best available training programs to your Startup employees. It would ensure a continuous skill up gradation, which would indeed develop the on-the-job performance of the employees.
Conduct business tours through your operation for a personage and foreign visitors.
Let them ‘ sign’ their own work: It generates a sense of responsibility as well as authority.
The above 14 ways are inclusive . One can think of thousand other ways to do so. The point here is: as competition increases, entrepreneurs would have to work with tight budgets, short deadlines and smaller staff. These would need the entrepreneurs to thrive more and more for achieving their startup goals. Inspiring employees under these nerve-racking and exigent scenarios would also test the aptitude and dexterity of the entrepreneur .