As a small business, you can have many benefits. You just need to realize and take advantage of some of them. Passion is one of the most important qualities you attempt to seek in every single one of your employees. Especially in a small business, passion is what takes your business to the next level. With passion comes an array of positive effects. You are more motivated, more supportive, and more engaged.
One typical route to take is changing the workspace as we’ve seen in many start-ups nowadays. This is a great feature, but most small businesses frankly don’t have the opportunity and capital to construct the next Google workspace. However, this is how passion can be instilled in another way in a company. I see it as a three-step process and when that is applied, this passionate culture is created.
1. Hire the right talent
The first step is hiring the right talent. You want to look for employees who see the glass half full, possess a strong work ethic, and adaptability. A positive employee will promote this attitude with other colleagues amongst them. This is especially important because a single “bad egg” has the potential to do significant damage to a culture. With a strong work ethic, employees will find motivation from adversity. They thrive in challenging situations and in a small business, every situation is challenging. Lastly, in my experience working for a couple small businesses, the most important quality I’ve seen is adaptability.
In a small business, it is a fact that you will find yourself wearing many hats. At any given moment you may be asked to take on many responsibilities and you have to be open and ready to take on this challenge. Of course to accomplish this, talent acquisition starts with upper management as will this next step.
2. Assign the right responsibilities and tasks
Once you’ve hired the appropriate employees, the next step is assigning them the right responsibilities and tasks. This is upon senior management to see their employees flourish and the only way to reach each employee’s potential is to give them work that is meaningful and work that makes them feel like they have a purpose in achieving the goals of the company. Additionally, managers should then spend the time to give constructive feedback.
3. Appreciate your staffs
Lastly, anchoring passion altogether can be done by something as simple as appreciation. Many people tend to overlook how a simple act of appreciation goes a long way for someone. I can speak for myself when I say it makes me feel like the work I do matters. It’s always nice to know that someone is looking at your work and it also gives a benchmark for the quality of the work going forward. It will make you want to always go above and beyond to continue to get recognition.
Now how do you express appreciation? If you feel something, say it. This may seem more sincere as opposed to blurting the cliché “Hey! Good job!” later one that everyone receives. Furthermore, have specifics in mind on what exactly did you find rewarding. Add substance behind what made it a good job. This will make your employee truly feel appreciated that you paid attention to their work. It will also make you realize the extra effort they put in and help you keep track of the quality of the work they can produce.
When you’ve done this, you create a work environment and culture that cultivates this positive surrounding where employees are passionate in what they do and who they work for.
About the Author: Jeremy Han is a Finance and Entrepreneurship Senior at Northeastern University, and currently a Research Associate at Argopoint LLC, a management consulting firm in Beacon Hill that works to improve in-house corporate legal department performance and efficiency at Fortune 500 companies. For more information, visit http://www.argopoint.com
