Are You Inspiring Greatness in Your Company?

You’ve hired the right staff of competent professionals. You’ve perfected your workflow and process.

If your company is a machine, you’ve kept it very well oiled. But it’s time for that next step – taking your team from good to great.

Here are just some of the ways you can inspire greatness in your company:

Lead by Example

You hear this all the time, but there’s more to the advice than the usual cliches.

As a manager, you can be in charge of creating an atmosphere that fosters real growth.

If you want your employees to stay curious and innovative, model that behavior by asking them questions.

Show that you are interested in your education and gaining a new skill set. It will help create a culture where it’s okay to not have all the answers because that’s a learning opportunity.

Likewise, if you believe that having a healthy work-life balance is what makes a company great, live by that.

Don’t send your employees emails at midnight with information that can wait until tomorrow.

Put a Clock on Pep Talks

When it comes to motivating employees, the corporate world can borrow from sports.

As the article, “Knute Rockne And Making the Effort to Inspire Greatness explains, famed coach Knute Rockne knew that if he wanted to truly reach his players he needed to keep his pep talks short and sweet.

You don’t want your team to be watching the clock rather than listening to your very important motivational meeting.

Take the coach’s advice and make sure you’re not delivering a monologue.

Show respect for your team’s time by keeping these talks short and show that you’ve put thought into them by taking the time to edit your messaging.

Get Vulnerable

If you own your own business or are a member of upper management, a number of your employees likely look up to you as a model for success.

You can inspire greatness in them by reminding them that those goals are within reach. Open up to your staff about your own personal professional journey. Most bosses aren’t born in the C-Suite but rather have risen up through the ranks.

Sharing those stories about the climb can help the people that work for you better see themselves on a similar trajectory to achievement.

Be Accountable For the Not-So-Great

Just as everyone is human, no company is perfect. But how businesses and individuals react to those failures is what separates the good from the great.

As a manager, you want to maintain a climate of transparency and accountability from the top down. Mistakes are bound to happen but you can make sure that people own them, learn from them, and keep it moving.

When you create an atmosphere that isn’t based on a fear of making mistakes, you’re effectively inspiring employees to take risks. You’re inspiring greatness in that you’re encouraging your staff to get out of their day-to-day comfort zones.

Greatness isn’t built overnight. It takes committed managers and motivated employees.

By modeling the right behavior, fostering open communication, and being cognizant of your worker’s time, you can take you company from good to great.

About the Author: Kristin Livingstone writes on a variety of topics including small business and motivational strategies.