If you want 2011 to be a stellar year, end this year well by giving your employees (and customers) three big gifts.
These gifts are often at the heart of most holiday stories, yet they hold power and promise for your workplace, every bit as much as they do for your life. And best of all, they won’t require another dip into your budget.
They are the gifts of peace, hope and love. (Now don’t check out here…I’m talking about the difference that may make the difference between you having a poor business year and having a great one).
Give the gift of peace
Most people want to be free from worry. In spite of that, many of us choose to be fearful ahead of time, and about things that will never happen. As the leader, you are in a position to nip worry in the bud. Bring clarity to any area of your workplace where your knowledge, belief or clarity can help people worry less.
You might also have what I would call “pot-stirrers” in your midst—they create drama wherever they can. But as much as your people like to watch drama on TV, they really wish there was less where they work. YOU, can bring peace by clearing up confusion, simplifying situations and by speaking truth as their leader. You will eliminate the seeds of chaos (even in small matters) and make more peace possible.
What do you need to address in your business that would give more peace to your clients and employees who are prone to worry?
Give the gift of hope
Questions abound these days about “the future.” And your people and marketplace are likely no different. How hopeful can we be about our future? What’s the chance we’ll be around, better, profitable, growing, etc. next year?
Here is your opportunity, because as a leader you can breathe vision into that conversation. You don’t have to be able to predict the economy exactly. You DO have to be able to tell people a story about how you do have a plan to make big things happen in the future. You do have to tell a story about how you offer something that people need, that someone will pay you for, that makes what you are doing significant in the marketplace.
How can you paint a picture or tell a story about your organization’s future that will affirm, remind or inform your customers and associates that looking forward, there is much to hopeful about?
Give the gift of love
It’s the power currency in the marketplace because it doesn’t require any money and a little bit can go a long way to increasing the value of your business.
If you appreciate what your employees do for you, take the time to tell them. If you appreciate that your customers have chosen to do business with you, let them know. If you really do have people with skills and talents who have worked hard and taken risks and helped you serve others…TELL THEM.
Do you already tell them? Figure out a way to celebrate it all over again…because it’s a most extraordinary gift you can give again and again and again. And it is the gift that keeps on giving back to the receiver as well.
Who do you need to appreciate in your work?
Bottom Line: We can all appreciate token business gifts we share over the holidays. But why not give your employees and customers what’s really on their list…peace,hope and love?
(This post was previously published in the April 2011 issue of Business Leader http://www.businessleader.bz/ )
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Written by Tom Plake
Topics: Leadership