One of the biggest challenges with leaders is the siloed approach they take for scaling their businesses. The most frustrating part of any employee would be the hierarchy, you know the usual:
- Leadership
- HR
- Business Development/Sales
- Operations
Sure it’s simple, functional and effective. Just that it does more hurt than help when it comes to growing further. Here’s why: folks in operations go through the grind every day while the rest of the business (HR being an exception) is busy with strategy and growing the business — the exciting part. And considering their massive base (almost 70-80% of the workforce) in the company, I think we’re missing out on a great opportunity.
I believe everyone in business can and should be empowered and encouraged to promote the business as their own. Leaders should value and understand that each employee is an ambassador for the business. Marketers and salespeople without formal titles or responsibilities or affiliations with the business development/sales department.
Sure, most businesses “get” this concept but I feel somewhere, somehow they lose out of the big picture and purely focus on deliverables and service-level agreements.
How? Facilitate discussions through workshops, webinars, drop-in meetings (agile meetings?) that spark conversations around the business, it’s values, it’s ideal clients and the impact it’s creating within the industry.
These discussions will help you drive massive engagement while bringing both you and the employees closer to the ground reality. And you just may get to hear their stories — the who, what, when, where, why and how — that will help you gain a deeper perspective on not only the business’ contribution to the clients and the industry but what it means to your people.
These stories will not only inspire you to do great work but also fulfilling their need to be heard and understood. Here’s the best part — once you flip the conversation, they’ll begin to see your big picture. And all great businesses, big or small, have great alignment.
What would you rather have? A bunch of employees focusing on getting work done and their pay-checks? Or a team that not just cares about the results they deliver but also passionately communicates the impact that your business is trying to create within their circles?
Enable the workforce to give leverage to the salesforce.