The culture of your business has nothing to do with museums or world travel. It’s all about how you treat your employees and how they feel about working for you.
By Katie Navarra
Have you ever thought about how former or current employees talk about what it’s like to work at your barn? Do they say they’re fulfilled or is each day a grueling grin-and-bear-it existence until another opportunity comes along?
Whether it’s positive or negative, how your employees feel at work impacts their ability to perform. Nurturing a positive workplace culture improves morale and productivity and ultimately helps your barn achieve the next level of success.
Nearly 60% of employees have left a job or are thinking about leaving because of a bad boss, according to a survey by Randstad US. While inadequate pay and benefits were among top-ranked reasons for leaving a job, many workers reported leaving because of negative experiences and a poor workplace culture—factors you can improve with better leadership.
Turnover is costly. Every time you hire a new employee, you invest time and resources into teaching them the ropes. Being short-staffed can make it difficult to accomplish the daily chores until someone new can be hired and trained. The unexpected loss because of a poor working environment is something that can be avoided. And if word gets on the street that the status of working at your barn isn’t worth the discomfort, it’ll became harder and harder to find good staff.
Culture is everything; it’s not something you add, according to Chuck Blakeman, CEO of Crankset Group. Blakeman has consulted with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other widely recognized companies teaching leaders the importance of culture.
We’ll cover six aspects of workplace culture in this article.
Part 1: What Is Workplace Culture?
Part 3: Communicate What’s Happening
Part 4: Empower Employees to Make Decisions
Empower Employees
People commit to what they create, Blakeman said. Employees are willing to walk to the ends of the earth for a trainer, a horse, and a client when they feel invested in the process. That means empowering employees to make decisions—be they in the horse’s training, showing schedule, or even medical treatment.
It may be frightening to allow an employee to make significant decisions for a client-owned horse with a high-dollar value. It’s scary because the horse owner holds you and your business accountable. It doesn’t have to happen in a vacuum—you should remain an integral part of the process—but fight the urge to micromanage. Allowing employees to make decisions leads to creative thinking and an unwavering commitment to doing what’s best for the horse, the client, and your business.
But there’s more to it than that. You can’t simply allow employees to make decisions. You have to require them to do so. Through his consulting work, Blakeman has found that about 60% of people have gotten used to leaving their brains at home. About another 20% to 30% of people jump at the opportunity to have more responsibility at work.
Read the rest of this article at the links above.
