Every employee a Business Partner? Yep.

Business owners: What are your employees to you?

If your answer mostly has to do with payroll, it is highly likely you are paying too much for what you’re probably getting.

Employees: What do you expect to gain when you work for someone else?

If your answer is a paycheck, you best not bite the hand that feeds you until you learn to feed yourself.

Eyebrows get raised when I say that every single employee should be a business partner in the ‘Ohana in Business; every single one.

Business owners will say, “But I worked hard to create my business and run it my way, and it’s only right that the profits from it are mine.”

My answer to that is, “Do you want to keep what you have created alive, well, and thriving? You need to choose between short-term profits and long-term wealth. (… and I don’t mean you give it ALL away…)”

Employees will say, “Call me a business partner, and I expect my share.”

My answer to that is, “Truly work for your share, working on the business and not just in it, and I agree, you should get your share.” (… and then we talk about what truly working for your share means …)

Let me ask you this; how good do you feel about working in business today?

I think that business is a phenomenal place to be.

What I see, is that business is what you make it.

Savvy business leaders get everyone to have a vested interest in the success of their business. Savvy business leaders work kākou, inclusively, encouraging staff to work on the business they share, not just in it.

When your staff feels they are your business partners, they act that way; they rise to the expectation with an eagerness that may surprise you. Their professionalism rises to the top like the cream in butter, because you have made them feel like it is their rightful place. However they protect your business as their own because they now have made it personal;

Their work + your work, now = OUR work.

As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding. I have found that the successful business owners are those who consider their staff to be their partners: they know them, they trust them and they count on them. These things have been made possible by the vision and values they share. For remember, your values drive your behavior.

Links which may be helpful;

1. Our Day One essay for August on ‘Ohana: ‘Ohana, Community, and The ‘Ohana in Business
2. The concept of Employees as Business partners was introduced here: The ‘Ohana in Business is a Place for Business Partners
3. My feelings about business models which must make sense came to me the hard way; when I found I was promoted to the top of an organization that had a seriously flawed one. I wrote about my experience in the manifesto I wrote for ChangeThis.com.