In my experience of working with entrepreneurs, business owners and CEOs, these leaders view their people as either an asset or a liability.
Assets make the company money.
Liabilities cost the company money.
When you are on the asset mindset side, you invest into your people: training, culture and shared rewards. You want to prime the asset to perform. The driving thought, “It’s the people who drive the business and the profits.”
When you are on the liability mindset side, you negotiate relentlessly to minimize the expense – or to shift the risk to the employee while dangling a carrot. The goal is to limit liability by paying as little as possible. People are interchangeable. The leader thinks, “People come and go. It’s the business that drives the profits.”
Which side is your company on? What do you think is the best approach?
It is absolutely the people who drive the business. You can strategize and give direction until you are blue in the face, but if the people you employ do not follow your strategy or plan, it is all pointless. The folks you hire must have trust in their leadership and must have a vested interest in the overall company goals. The leaders of an organization must empower the employees under them and build a trusting relationship, so that the employee will go to the end of the earth for you, but without that bond and trust, an organization will never live up to its potential.