It’s one of the biggest mistakes of entrepreneurs, who have created a startup. They think, that if they are really involved in their project, then everyone else should be involved as much, as they are. Listen to me carefully: they won’t be involved as much, if you won’t give them something back!
I can hear lots of times from any kind of startups’ entrepreneurs, that “it’s a startup, so everybody should work here twice as much, as in normal company”. Nothing further from the truth. They won’t work so much, because why they would do that?
They are employees, nothing more, nothing less. If they do not see the purpose – they do not give too much from each other.
In this matter, I can see two types of people:
- normal people – about 80% of all employees
- “not-so-normal people” – all the rest
Normal people
This type of people are normal, standard employees. In my opinion: that’s about 80% of all employees. These people want to work, earn money and nothing more. They are not interested in whether or not your company be successful. They want to do, what they have to do and then have the peace of mind.
“Not-so-normal people”
This type of people are the employees, which want something more. They want to learn something, be promoted to higher position, do something else, achieve a success.
Who do you need and how to gain from them as much as possible?
You should have employees of both of these types in your company.
First of these are necessary to work on projects. They are relatively quiet, not so controversial. They want to work and do their job well. That’s all.
Second of these are needed to spread its wings. These people are pushing the company to the top, talking about it on the outside. They are involved, but demanding.
And it is not so important, whether you have a startup or a thriving corporation. You need both types of employees in it. And all of these workers have to be motivate. You need to motivate them, to gain from them as much, as possible. You can not require them too much, if you don’t give them anything in return. Therefore…
- Ensure, that these “normal” employees have decent working conditions. Pay their wages on time. Help them to learn and do not require them to work overtime, if you don’t really need it. If you offer them the conditions, under which they will feel good – they will pay you back, by a hard work. It will give you more benefits, than you’d expect.
- Ensure these “not-so-normal employees’ something more. If they are worth of it – promote them. If you can – reward their efforts and motivate to further action. Find out what they expect, who they want to be and motivate them to go that way. Reward them by the premiums, allow them to do some presentations on the conferences. Motivate them to identify with your company. Motivate them to get depended on the success of your company.
