There is a belabored cliché that says, “It’s lonely at the top.” This reference is for business owners and leaders. It even applies to ecommerce.
The reason leadership is lonely is often because the leader of any organization must make decisions that will not please everyone and it’s often easier to not develop friendships with your employees than to risk losing that friendship because of decisions you may have to make.
However, the good news is leaders can learn from the very things they may desire themselves, but never receive. I’m talking about the two elements of a good hire.
The first element is to make sure the employee you hire is placed into the same category as their passion. In essence you need to match the employee to the job they are best suited for. If you do this you are rewarded by having an employee that will exhibit passion for the job without the need to prod them along.
The second element is a bit harder. You need to keep your eyes open for positive contributions to your business. Find ways to reward employees for doing a good job. This could be a weekend vacation getaway or something more simple like a verbal word of praise or a certificate of appreciation – often it’s somewhere in between.
As you work to develop your ecommerce business you should understand any employees you have will need some form of encouragement. On the ecommerce side of the screen you may find life very different than normal brick and mortar store atmospheres.
In a brick and mortar store your staff will typically work with individuals in a face-to-face environment. In an ecommerce business, your staff will like not work in the same manner with customers. In fact, many of the connections are handled through autoresponders and ezine distribution. Your employees might actually work in a remote location.
The passion of your employees will set them on the right path to being a quality employee, however it will be your direct encouragement that may be what keeps that quality employee from looking elsewhere for ‘meaningful’ work.
If you’re in a leadership position you may rarely receive positive feedback on a personal level because the buck always stops with you, but for your employees the feedback and positive reinforcement you can give are key to job satisfaction and loyalty to your business.
The benefits to the employer are a more identifiable team atmosphere and employees that respect the velvet glove much better than the iron fist.
