(ThySistas.com) These days, it’s not just about the bottom line, the products, or even the customers, but it’s about the overall culture your business communicates to your consumers and your employees. The latter is probably more important. The business culture is what will help it thrive, foster relationships, and nurture productivity in numerous ways. But self-improvement is another one of those components that, while it may seem a little bit to inward-looking, has to be part of the business culture. How can you implement this?
Set The Precedent
As much as we have to lead by example, when it comes to self-improvement we’ve got to set the standards and ensure that they are adhered to. This isn’t just in terms of the productivity, but it’s also the infrastructure. When it comes to improving yourself and the business, there are so many different aspects to work on. From the IT audit & compliance aspects, to how you lead your teams, self-improvement isn’t just something that needs to be done now and again; it has to be continuous. The only way to make it continuous is to make it a benchmark that has to get reached.
Encourage The Employees’ Progression
As every entrepreneur started their business in the hope that they would reach the stars, the one way that they had to foster this was to continually challenge themselves. Every employee looks for a way to progress. And if we encourage our employees to go further, this benefits the culture, the business benefits, but so does the personal goals of each individual. It’s rare that you see someone wanting to stay in one place. Career progression is part of the framework. And if you are keen on self-improvement you must encourage your employees to look within themselves for things that aren’t there, and build on them so they can go further.
Let Everyone Have Their Say
It isn’t just your impression of the business, but it’s everyone that’s working on the ground floor upwards. We live in an era where employees should feel free to speak their minds. But if we are operating with a culture of fear, it’s hardly a surprise that people don’t want to tell everyone their intimate thoughts on the business. We have to let anyone have their say but we have to do it in a dignified and diplomatic manner. Once we start this, and we create a forum in which employees can speak their mind, this is when the culture will become one for self-improvement.
Implement Cross-Training
While we need multi-skilled members of staff, implementing cross-training is a perfect way to reinforce the idea of self-improvement. Self-improvement isn’t just moving sideways, but it’s also moving upwards, or even into a more comfortable position. Cross-training is not just about a day-long workshop, but we can have other members of teams do skill swap days, and these aspects will help to give your employees a better view of the big picture. Cross-training is the perfect way to breed workers of various skills, but also it helps others to pick up the baton when parts of the company are flagging.
Staff Writer; Lisa Parker