Is your Company, your company

I think the toughest part about running a company is keeping a healthy connection with your team. 

We depend upon the people within our company to make our customers happy, to make sure we're doing things efficiently, and to help us continually innovate; yet, we often don't spend time to just sit down and eat together and really know each other.

This picture I used for this article shows an image from my backyard. This picture was taken last night after a dinner with my team was over and we were hanging out just having some good laughs.

I've owned my company for 11 years, and I can sadly say this was the first time I had invited my whole company over for a meal at my home. We've had meals together, just generally at restaurants or somewhere neutral.

When I was growing up and people were coming over to my house, my family often said "there's company coming over." This meant to me that some good friends or maybe new friends were coming over to hang out with us and spend time together.  

Old thoughts on leadership say that you should create distance between you and your team because it makes tough decisions more neutral or easier. The problem is, keeping distance can make you seem less vulnerable and less human.

There's something extremely personal about inviting your team over to your house and making company out of your Company. I have three young boys, which means there are toys all over the place, marks on my floors, and things on walls that you can't tell whether it is poop or chocolate. This is vulnerable part, showing that I don't always have it together or have all the answers.

The point is, I'm human and a normal one at that; and if I'm just a normal human that means I have to get the buy in and combined effort of all of my team to accomplish something amazing.

If you're a leader, get closer to your team. Learn their stories, ask them questions about what they love and what they're journey has been. It's amazing at what you can learn by just spending some time listening instead of driving the conversation. 

Show them you're human, you'll need all of them if you really want to be successful.