In an entrepreneurial organization, work is more than showing up for a typical 9-to-5 job. Every day becomes a motivating challenge to see how hard you can push yourself.
When employees are empowered to develop creative solutions and are rewarded, they become more consultative and productive.
From the day System One launched, we’ve actively promoted an entrepreneurial culture. Our vision has been to create an organization in which people do not have to jump through hoops to get work done, red tape is not tolerated and innovation is rewarded.
Empowering your people
A pioneering culture doesn’t happen overnight. It takes persistent scrutiny to make sure your team has the aptitude to operate independently. A few underlying principles send a strong message:
- High expectations. Everyone needs to know whether his or her performance is on track, as close to real time as possible. Constructive feedback should occur every day, not just once a year in a formal performance review.
- Engaged leadership team. Our managers are expected to initiate and participate in sales meetings and recruiting interviews. Not only does this give them firsthand insight, it also lets them lead by example.
- Open door policy. We don’t stand on hierarchy. Every employee is encouraged to call our leadership team with a question or suggestion, and they will always get our full attention and honest input.
- Create opportunities. Pushing individuals to create opportunities for the benefit of the team is an essential ingredient of an entrepreneurial culture. Encouraging the belief that what goes around comes around helps to ensure a selfless environment.
- Speed counts. Speed is a critical factor in being entrepreneurial — the team with a workable solution to market first usually wins. Technology and processes help us deliver faster than our competitors, at a lower cost.
A balancing act
There’s a fine line between encouraging independence and maintaining accountability. When someone isn’t on track, chances are they know it, and those around them do, too. That’s why it’s important to offer some latitude for mistakes as well as provide training and guidance.
Just because we don’t micromanage doesn’t mean we don’t have systems and structures in place. Here are several examples:
- Transparent data. Provide your employees with information to measure themselves against their peers. This spurs healthy competition and gives teams the data they need to self-monitor performance.
- Incentive-based compensation. Competitive base salaries help bring people in the door, but top performers respond to pay that allows them to earn more based upon personal production and level of effort.
- Patience. It is important in an entrepreneurial culture to be patient and allow individuals to develop. Productivity may be delayed, so be sure to evaluate the overall effort in comparison to numbers.
An entrepreneurial culture upholds the idea that each individual can be a powerful force for change. When you provide personal and programmatic support to reinforce that concept, the result is a rewarding environment where people love to work hard.
Greg Lignelli is the COO of System One Holdings LLC, which delivers workforce solutions and integrated services to help clients get work done more efficiently and economically, without compromising quality.
