Be a Visionary Leader for Individuals

In entrepreneurship one of the most difficult challenges, aside from successfully turning a profit, can be managing people. Business owners come from a multitude of backgrounds, which means not all of them have ever held positions of management in their lives. Some have never even worked for anyone else.

Why this is such a huge issue for your business is because the growth of a company is directly related to empowering your employees. Where some may have never worked for anyone else in a true business setting, there can be a misunderstanding of what employees want, need and desire from the owner or leader.

In a recent Inc.com video with Marcus Lemonis, from CNBC’s series The Profit, he discusses “unapplied labor.” In Lemonis’ description unapplied labor is work that is being paid for by you, the owner, but not being reciprocated by the employee. This may not necessarily be because they are a freeloader, but it could be that they don’t have direction from their superior.

For many leaders they believe they hire specific people with skills to perform certain tasks. Inadvertently we have an internal belief that these people already have the tools and know what their job is. However, that would be misunderstood.

People are hired to perform roles and duties. But people don’t enter a workplace and instinctively know what to do, or even how to please you. In today’s work environment there is a lot of discussion about teamwork. While this is OK, it’s vital that when creating a position and leading the person in that position, you lead them as an individual. You need to make them feel like you’re in their corner and focused on helping them succeed.

You must also remember as a leader that there are boundaries that employees, even as open an office communication you may have, won’t cross. It’s important that you build bridges with employees and help them understand where they’re going and your plan for their success at your brewery.

I once worked for a person that wouldn’t share their vision. They spent a lot of time relying on employees for the vision of the company, which can be very entrepreneurial, but where that misses the mark is you don’t necessarily know where you’re going as an individual. In this case an employee can begin to worry about the future and where they are going.

In regards to Lemonis’ video, he says it’s vital that you empower the individual. The case is the owner wants more marketing in her business. She wants employees to help, but when she presented her plan, it was presented as a team goal with team incentives. This is missing the mark with employees because people are instinctively focused on themselves, and not in a bad way. To get employees to focus on marketing, Lemonis suggests that the owner strive to empower and incentivize individual employees.

When you believe in providing an entrepreneurial atmosphere for your employees, it’s important that employees can truly live that lifestyle. They must have some control over their success and they must have a leader that has a vision for their future, not the other way around. Remember, it’s your business, it’s your vision, they are an employee at the end of the day, and it’s on you to handle that responsibility and prepare a vision for their role.

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*