August 2019 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / 51INVESTING IN INNOVATORS | PLANTING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SEED AT YOUR COMPANY>>>
are able to take responsibility
of their tasks, and lead their
way through them until they
are done and deliver worthy
results. Not only that, they
also strategize, optimize,
evaluate, and take action
accordingly. They are the ones
who truly invest their full
capacity, instead of simply
going through the checklist.
So, how can employers
build and encourage the
entrepreneurial spirit of their
employees? Here are some
quick ways to get started:
- Set clear expectations
Employers who want to
empower their employees to
be independent and self-
regulate their work should set
clear goals and objectives from
the get-go. That starts with
giving employees something
to aim for: something Specific,
Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, and Timebound
(SMART). Not only do the
goals need to be laid out
clearly, and in a challenging
yet realistic manner, they
also need to be established in
mutual agreement. It is very
easy to fall for commands and
task lists, but that’s exactly
how you stop cultivating
entrepreneurship within a
team or a company. Make
sure that your team fully
understands what is expected
from them, why it is expected
of them, and how they can
ultimately grow and impact
the bottom line. Paint the
complete picture, where each
employee is genuinely an
essential brick of the larger
building, and where each
project or task being handled
is fundamental for the success
of the organization. Most
employees want to impress
their managers, and want to
be recognized for their good
work. So, by setting your
expectations, they’ll have
enough information to manage
themselves, and you won’t
have to intervene, and spend
your time and effort going
back and forth and guiding the
whole process.- Lead by example
It is no secret that employees
are highly influenced by their
managers. What managers
do (and how they do it) can
highly impact the behavior
and performance of their
employees. This is a big reason
why, in certain companies,
both culture and productivity
vary drastically from one team
to the other. Managers are
looked up to as role models
and are on the spotlight most
of the time. The good thing is
managers can and should ac-
tively exhibit entrepreneurial
behavior by taking initiative,
exploring new projects, own-
ing their work, using delega-
tion for empowerment not
evasion, and similar behaviors
that infiltrate the team and
company.- Give time to think
It is very easy to get sucked
into the routine at work, when
everything seems mechanical
and repetitive, there’s no
drive to push outside of one’s
comfort zone, and creativity
and passion take a prolonged
break. Managers should
encourage their employees
to step out of the routine
box by offering them with
the time and space to think
for themselves. This can
give employees the chance
to think of the value of
their work, which can make
them look at their work in
a different perspective, an
entrepreneurial perspective.
As only when employees
start to understand the value
that they are adding to the
organization is when they can
start to devise new tactics to
cut costs and start being more
efficient. Doing so should
not only occur when there’s
something to brainstorm or a
challenge to solve. In fact, it
might be more beneficial to
adopt a proactive approach,
and push everyone to think of
what is working, is it optimal,
what needs to be changed,
and what value is being
delivered. Organizations with
very tight policies tend to
create a culture that restricts
employees’ ability to think
for themselves. And people
who aren’t given the chance
to think and create simply
won’t, which can be a recipe
for disaster. If you want your
employees to act and operate
like entrepreneurs, you’ll need
to give them the freedom,
trust, and time.- Seek them out
Employers looking for some-
one to join their organization
might think that they just
need an employee with the
right qualifications to get the
job done, and that’s it. But
very little attention is paid to
personality, drive, motivation,
entrepreneurial character-
istics, potential, and such.
Shifting to include the latter
components when hiring is an
integral component of building
the right type of company and
talent force. It is important
that companies are firstly not
limited to small candidate
pools. Choice is abundant
nowadays- Bayt.com offers a
platform with over 36 million