Motivate Your Staff To Think Like Entrepreneurs

Managed Services providers understand the importance of workforce moral.  When employees feel that they are valued members of the organization, they take pride in their position and perform at a higher level of proficiency and efficiency.  You can increase the success and productivity of your company by encouraging your employees to think like entrepreneurs.  The following steps will get you started in building a successful team:

1. Promote Problem Solvers
2. Embrace Failures
3. Reward Ingenuity
4. Motivate With Money
5. Create Teams
6. Lead By Example

The first five steps are part of incentive programs found in many companies that are used because of their proven results, and are known by most business owners and managers.  Managed Services companies that foster a positive, motivating and rewarding work environment have employees who are happier and who perform at a higher level.

The key to increasing the success of your company and the effort of your employees is to remember the 6th step.  If you want to take your employees to the next level of entrepreneurial thinking, you have to lead by example.  It is human nature to emulate those around us who reflect our own morals and values.  Therefore employees will be more likely to think like the owner of the company if the owner connects to them on an emotional level, and demonstrates the kind of behaviors and traits expected of the employees.

To encourage and empower your employees to put 100% into the company, you must provide an environment that demonstrates compassion and that considers employee input when making decisions.  Business owners who have great people skills and the ability to relate to their employees on a personal level will have employees who are motivated to peak performance – and a Managed Services business that outperforms those who do not function with these principles in place.

If you want your employees to feel ownership you must be able to read and respond to the mood of your work force.  Employees who show up for work just to get the job done are not going to be as productive as employees who actively think of ways to improve the company.  For this reason you should remain approachable and encourage employees to come to you with ideas, complaints and concerns. 

Owners must realize if they expect employees to think as if they owned the business, then they must also be empowered and equipped to make decisions.  If your employees do not have the ability or authority to follow through with their entrepreneurial ideas, they will be less inclined to put the extra effort into projects.  To ensure your employees have the right tools to make tough decisions, provide training courses which improve business skills.  By educating your employees, you are not only investing in their future, but the future success of your managed services business as a whole.

Get the tools and resources to educate yourself and your employees to become a best-in-class solution provider and MSP by joining MSP University.

Erick Simpson
MSP University
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Comments

[Erick Simpson]

Thanks, Paul. We've found that the more we empower our own staff, the more vested they feel in their ability to improve the organization as a whole, and the more they evolve from the typical employee mentality of doing just what is required for a paycheck. This nurtures and identifies leaders within our organization.

Keep up the great work you're doing for the channel at Virtual Administrator!

[Paul Barnett]

Great read. Speaking from personal experience, it is vital that owners lead by example. Employees are often like children and they follow the lead the parent (business owner). If you disorganized or unprepared for work, don't be shocked when your employees do the same. MSP owners need to be especially conscious of the example they set for their staff.