The CEO and founder of OtterBox, Curt Richards, recently posted a byline article for Inc. Magazine about maintaining workforce passion in a small business. Since many of our clients are start-up companies that are growing, and as a small-but-growing business ourselves, we thought we would share a few of Curt’s key findings to ensure that the start-up mentality of scrappiness and passion becomes a part of the company’s long term culture.
Curt recommends the following four tips for building and maintaining a passionate workforce:
- “From the top down.” First and foremost, passion needs to come from the leadership. If the leadership isn’t reflecting an attitude of enthusiasm and vigor, how can they expect their workers to demonstrate these qualities? Business leaders set the tone for the rest of the company – their attitudes set a precedent for how their employees should act. If you’re in a leadership position, this is an important tip to keep in mind.
- “From the bottom up.” Just as the business leaders set the tone for a workplace’s passion and culture, every employee should take responsibility for that tone as well. Particularly in a small company, each individual truly adds something to the culture and personality of the workforce. Even during stressful or hectic times, employees should take it upon themselves the exude positivity and excitement about their work – it’s infectious to the other workers around them.
- “To the farthest reaches.” Even small companies can have a distributed presence. Many of our clients, while small in size, have people who work remotely from other areas of the nation or have regional sales offices to ensure customers throughout the nation are getting some face time. Passion needs to stem from headquarters and flow through other locations for your company – both near and far – much like your heart pumps blood to your extremities. Your other locations can play a big role in the growth and success of your company, so make sure you’re investing time and resources to build passion with remote or disparate workers.
- “In everything we do.” If you build a sense of passion in your workforce, ask them to prove it. Go full-throttle on all of your projects, and go the extra mile for customers. Demonstrate that passion by letting it play a role in your day-to-day work. Not only will it continue to build internal excitement, it will also build passion in customers and other key players in your industry.
What are some of the other ways you instill a sense of passion in your workforce, and what are your best practices for maintaining that quality?