Business Truth No.2 - Focus On Your People.

This is the second of my "business truths" that I've discovered after having the amazing opportunity to interview 10 more inspirational business owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs.

To listen to the full episode, and many jam-packed business interviews, search for "The Truth About Business" in all good podcasting apps.

Or you can see them all at my blog at www.benjaminbrain.co.uk.

So, let's dive in to truth No.2...

Business Truth No.2 – Focus On Your People.

Throughout the last series of interviews with my featured business owners and entrepreneurs there were a number of clear, recurring concepts, principles and insights that were a key focus for many of my guests.

Perhaps the one that stood out the most for me, and I was quite surprised at how seriously businesses of all shapes, ages and sizes took it, was the importance of focusing on your people.

Like finding your “why”, building an “engaged” team has become a buzzword word in the business world and whilst many business owners and corporations boast of being aware of the concept, you tend to find that few are actually implementing it well.

As a business owner it’s all too easy to spend your days looking for new opportunities, arranging and attending sales meetings, budgeting, planning, strategising, improving, automating, negotiating with suppliers – and that’s not to mention the relentless firefighting of urgent tasks that appear from nowhere on a daily basis.

It’s all to easy to find yourself spending days on end, locked away in your office or out travelling on the road without coming in to contact with a single member of the team.

But what I’ve discovered from many of my guests is that despite all of those activities mentioned above, perhaps the best thing you can do for your business is to actually invest time in getting on the front line and getting amongst your team.

Perhaps nowadays, when people hear “engaged” the default is to think of “Googleised” offices with space hopper meeting rooms and freshly prepared plant-based meals hand-delivered by buddhist monks.

All of a sudden, an engaged team sounds expensive.

But what I’ve come to realise is that most of that is just superficial.

And as Kul Mahay talked about in his interview, building an engaged team that will go the extra mile and will stay loyal to you can actually be as simple as just having a normal conversation with your people.

It’s taking time out of your day, to find out how their day is going.

It’s asking what they’ve been up to, how their family is, what they enjoy about the job and what could be improved.

These type of conversations will not only build an incredible bond between you and the rest of the business, but you’ll also glean perhaps some of the most valuable intel as your staff will know just as well as you, usually better, what’s going right, what’s going wrong and what needs to change.

The long-term results from making this a regular part of your work week are no longer in question – it works.

The trouble that many business owners have with this, and I have no problem holding my hand up to this myself, is that it’s an exercise that doesn’t generate a tangible result that can be plugged into a spreadsheet and analysed.

As business leaders, sometimes, if not all the time, we feel pressured (and usually, we’re the only person piling on that pressure) to show that we’re providing value to the company by “doing” as much stuff and getting as many tasks ticked off the checklist as possible.

But ultimately, that short-term dopamine hit that we get from completing a task is not what’s best for the on-going success of the business.

For you, it’s a conversation with a member of the team.

For that one individual, it’s the fact that THE owner of the business has taken time out of his or her day to sit down and have a conversation with them.

It could well be the highlight of that person’s week that they go home and tell their partner about over dinner – just for them to know that you care about them.

If you want to make your team feel valued – it’s perhaps the best thing you can do.

Forget the space hoppers.

Forget the fussball tables.

Forget the sleeping pods.

Just begin by making talking with your team a regular part of your weekly routine.

Because if you don’t have that, none of the above will make an ounce of difference.

The question is, if your days are already packed full – how do you find the time?

Well unfortunately, that’s not possible.

Nobody has the magical ability to “find time”.

You have to MAKE the time and then view that time as sacred.

Damon from BriefYourMarket talked about how he takes his team out to the pub on a regular basis so they can let their hair down, relax and all get to know each other on a deeper level which builds a level of comradery that is hard to beat.

Steve Gandy talked about how you should schedule no less than eight hours per week in advance, and block it out in your diary so it gets done, for “MBWA” – Management By Walking About.

Because if you look after your people, your people will look after your customers.

And if your people look after your customers, your customers will look after your business.

And if your customers look after your business….well…I think we all know what’s next and it revolves around you.

And to bring my second business truth to a close, focus on your people, I’m going to use a quote from Steve Gandy in the last interview on the show, which went a little something like this:

“It’s your people that will get you to where you want to be, so focus on your people”.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and that you may have also learned something from it.

If you have any questions, suggestions or stories of your experiences with these concepts, I'd love to know.

Message me on LinkedIn or just get in touch!

Make it a great day and here's to your business success!

Benjamin :)

Host Of "The Truth About Business" Podcast

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