Invest in your team and reap the rewards
Running a business can be tough at times. I’ve written many times about the challenges faced with technology and that’s something that we understand well. But what about people? Regardless of whether you’re running your own business or are managing a team or department, motivating your people to ‘buy in’ is crucial. We’ve all seen or worked in places where it just doesn’t gel for a variety of reasons. The reality is that it is absolutely crucial to your business success. It’s what management guru’s call ‘your culture’ and as the often quoted Peter Drucker said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
Being located in Central West NSW, we’ve always had a local’s first view on employment and that has helped contribute to our team culture. We believe there’s a few additional ways you can help encourage your team to join you on the journey, to buy into the direction of your business.
Common goals and shared success
I truly believe that aligning everyone in your business to a common goal is a must. In our business we reward everyone on the key team targets, regardless of whether they’re in sales, technical, or operational roles.
Focusing on team rewards is a good strategy. Think about team trips, dinners etc. where shared success is rewarded. Everyone is in it together, myself included, so we should all share in a successful outcome.
I think it’s important to also help your team succeed outside of work. For example, we encourage our team to complete education courses outside of their job role, funded by Inland Digital. We’ve had staff use this contribution for fitness goals, to improve their cooking skills, even to do pilot training! It’s all part of staying engaged and motivated.
Training is more than just technical or sales
As a technology company, we’re always investing in training courses, whether it’s from our partners such as Canon, Ricoh, and Fuji Xerox, or IT related training to up skill and accredit our team.
You can always cast a wider net when it comes to training. We like to encourage our team to up skill themselves not only professionally but also for other challenges life can throw at you. We’ve held training sessions internally with partners in areas such as financial planning and legal, providing information that can help enrich their lives away from work. The feedback on these sessions is great and its something I’m glad we invest time in. It also gives our team the chance to better understand our partners businesses and the issues and challenges they face.
We also regularly ask our clients for feedback. Bringing in a client to talk about why they work with us is a great educational exercise. We recently had a client explain in their words how having a technology partner like Inland Digital can help them in what they do. It’s always nice to hear how the technology you implement can help improve the way someone works in achieving their goals.
Taking this learning experience through to our clients is also important. We’re focused on helping people learn about how technology can help them, whether it’s through a lunch and learn session or a post we share.
No one person is more important
I read a quote recently that summed this point up for me. Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a passionate Cronulla Sharks fan and when one of our star players announced he was going to a rival club next season after much media speculation, Sharks captain Paul Gallen said “I don’t want him to go one bit but if it was to happen from a club point of view – and I’m putting my club hat on – it could have been worse…It’s about the team result and having a team-first mentality and attitude”.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s always tough when a key person leaves however the key point is the team: No one person is more important the team as a whole, and that includes myself.
If you focus on building that shared mentality of a common goal and achievement, then it will set you up for success.