DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Inspired by relations and circumstances observed by me wrt a few startup founders, and their employees, I thought of writing this, based on my knowledge, past experiences, and insights in HR, starting up, mentoring and observations in my current organization.

You can consider this as a check-list for all good entrepreneurs, to check on whether you, a startup, are great as employers too.

1.     Do you know your employees well, to begin working with them? 

Even though HR/ You have studied your employees’ resume and interviewed them, do study their profile to know what tasks exactly they’d be more suited to in the office? Their profile should ideally be suiting to their aptitude and enable them to give their best. Do not jeopardize their career for your business motives, even if not deliberately.

Go out with them, interact with them, to know who is what, what is their background, what can be expected of them and to let them know more about you, so that they can be more open while discussing about work.

This also applies to managers who have newly taken up some responsibilities and have few juniors working under them. 

2.    Have you made efforts to know them more? 

Only when you them more (and vice-versa) can you expect to get synergy out of the team that includes you and them. You can know what extra to expect of them, which of them has potential for higher/ better / new responsibilities. And when they know you more, they’d know what kind of expectations you have from them, and they shall deliver accordingly. 3.    Do you communicate with them often and enough?
If the communication between you and your employees is limited to office work and does not relate to things like knowing each other or discussing, improving on work performance, or working together, there exists a communication problem, which can only be solved by having very open communication policy, wherein people are listened to and can be open about what they feel about the organization and about people.

Employees must be listened to, and encouraged to give their honest views/ opinions and feedback. Suppressing open communication can only deter the group performance. Have an “Open Door” policy where any employee/ junior feels you are accessible, and can come to you anytime for any issue. This is followed by some great CEOs in literal sense. “Be Accessible” is the mantra.

As a perfect example of internal crowd-sourcing (using employees for democratic decision employee-making), Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE, had once asked his employees to tell their managers what is wrong with the company and how it should be run, as part of a special exercise. It gave amazing results for the GE.

4.    Do your employees actually feel you are mentoring them?
You have told them, that you are their mentor, but do you understand the role a mentor performs? Do you know what does your employee expect from you as mentor? If you don’t know that and you are being a mentor with your own assumptions of his/her expectations, you are a bad mentor. Discuss all mutual expectations and deliverables through and through with your mentee, and keep the communication lines open. Encourage them to come to you for all issues/ queries/ problems and answer their queries satisfactorily. 5.    Do you know what your employees think about you?
You may have been highly covered in press and media and may have the best PR agency, but are you able to do your own PR to your employees? You may be throwing many office parties to please them but do you actually know what they think about you?

Do not assume that if you are/ have been good to them, there is bound to be positive thinking about you, behind your back. Even if there is no bitching about you, there is a need for you to ascertain that through having open communication. Be open about what you say or do, and encourage them to be so. Ask them for feedback about you and heed to what they say. You may be in for shock. 6.    Do you train your employees before loading them with expectations?
May organizations hire freshers, sometimes even from different fields, and expect them to be efficient from day one. Are you one of them? Never be. Even if you have hired a person from same field, and with experience, ideally the person should be given training (even if a day’s) to acclimatize them to the work style of your organisation. Before that, you should not set your expectations from them. Otherwise, don’t complain if they don’t (are not able to) perform.

Training would also give them an impression that the organization cares for them. 7.    Do you follow time as much as you expect your employees to follow?
Many entrepreneurs often expect/ ask their employees to be in office according to a 9 to 5 job, but turn up themselves in office very very late, as they are the boss! Do you think, this is respected by your employees? Sometimes they think you are not giving your 100% but just exploiting them, as they are overworking to compensate for your time wastage.

Have same policies for all, and follow them yourself as well. Set an example for them. You may have burnt night lamps to create this startup and can’t give up the habit now, but whatever is the case, office policies should be followed by all, if you are to develop a professional organization and retain talent and want employees to give their best. 

8.    Are you working as a team member?
Some entrepreneurs don’t believe in working together with employees, but work as a boss, and only dictate work (delegate their own terms) and then walk away. A great manager is one who works with his own team, as a team member, probably doing higher value task, and lets his/her  people know what are the performance expectations. 

"Are you one of those who come late to office (being a night owl) and have poor physical presence in the organization, though communicate very well yourself, and have good education? Do you believe that employees should not be able to access you directly, as you are the ‘CEO’ (of a startup albeit)."

9.    Do you set a performance example to be emulated?
If you want employees to perform in a particular way, you need to demonstrate it once or twice, train them and then expect it. This requires working with them, explaining them, may be more than once, and answering all their queries, without a single scornful look or negative comments. This way they also know that you are boss because you are more competent and knowledgeable than them at that task. 10.    Do you have a formal suggestion/ feedback system?
This is kind of - a new for more than 90% companies. I have not heard any company having such a system, which I believe could be the most democratic and efficient way a company could use its people resources (a.k.a. crowdsourcing), and be a market leader. This may not be required in a very small set-up, but having it in a company with more than 15-20 employees is the best thing company could have. This is a Must-Try.

It just needs a pro-active approach and personal interest by the top management, with additional need of may be a software or just a proper procedure. Have a policy where employees give suggestions each of which is taken up for serious review by a pre-decided rotating panel, and then if feasible, acted upon by the management, with further discussions / brainstorming if the suggestion warrants it. Which of these do you follow?

Try them, and you will see how much more the employees are respecting you and loving their work and the organization. 

*******************************************************************************

Also Read: 

Startup is an emotional ride – Is there something more important than the team?

Span of control: How many people can you supervise?