Are your employees working overtime for free?
Something unique about the culture we’ve created at Cardone Ventures is that our employees consistently join us on Saturdays and Sundays to work. That’s right — our employees choose to spend their free time here pushing their initiatives and our business forward.
Most business owners struggle to get their employees to care about their business as much as they do, and when they see what we’ve created here, they ask us how we did it.
Now, like most things in business, there’s no silver bullet or secret potion for what will make your employees genuinely care about your business, and what works for us may not work perfectly for you. But, there are a few common threads of businesses with teams that are just as dedicated as the owners are.
There’s always something bigger to work toward
It’s nearly impossible to get your team to care deeply about your business when they don’t feel like there’s something bigger to work toward. If you’re happy with what your business is currently making in revenue, then the organization is going to plateau along with it. When there’s no bigger picture or next big initiative, your team is going to be complacent.
Set lofty goals for yourself and your business. Dream big for that next expansion, product launch, or acquisition. And make sure your team knows that reaching goals is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
Have a strong purpose and mission for your business
Having a mission or vision statement is probably one of the first things a new business owner does when starting their business, but oftentimes that mission just sits on a website and isn’t made crystal clear to employees. If there’s not purpose for the work, your team doesn’t have a reason to work (other than a paycheck, of course, which should never be the sole motivation for having a job).
If you don’t have a mission statement already, draft one! And if you do, think deeply about how that mission statement plays a role in the day-to-day of your business. Do your employees know what the mission statement is? Do they understand it? Take some time to reflect on how you can make your company’s mission play more of a role in your employees’ work lives.
Build a supportive culture where employees genuinely like their coworkers
Most people will spend a third of their life at work by the time they retire, and, if you work a traditional 9-to-5 job, you probably feel like you spend more time with your coworkers than your family or your spouse. So, when you don’t like your coworkers or your manager, it can be hard to choose to spend that precious free time with them.
Now, you can’t force everyone in your company to like everyone else, but you can control who you hire and ensure that you’re hiring like minded individuals who will lift up their coworkers and be supportive of the team’s initiatives and goals.
Create opportunities for growth (and to make money!)
If you’re familiar with Cardone Ventures, you know we host a lot of weekend workshops for business owners to level up their skills and scale their businesses, and we do that on purpose. This gives our teams more opportunities to network and engage with businesses that may be a good fit for Cardone Ventures. We’re not expecting our teams to come in on a weekend and search for work to do, we’re putting those opportunities front and center.
We do this for more than just the sales team, too. We invest heavily in our team’s personal, professional, and financial goals to help them get to the next stage of their careers. And, with more opportunities to work for the growth of the business, the more opportunities they have to make more money — it’s a win-win!
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Above all else, lead by example
One of the other reasons our employees choose to spend their weekends at the office is because they see us doing it. I’m at the office working on the business almost every weekend, and so are my business partners and most of our leadership team. We’ve found that our team feeds off our energy and dedication, and by spending our weekends growing the business, they are more inclined to do the same.
Looking for more tips on building a high-performance team that propels your business forward? Check out my book, TeamWork, where I share how to create teams that work the way you want them to.