Smart leaders boost profits by encouraging employee engagement. #WISP Success #WISP Leadership
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” –Ronald Reagan
An engaged employee benefits everyone involved with an organization. Engagement, or employee ownership, is connected to key performance indicators, including profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction, which can make or break your WISP.
Great leaders facilitate employee engagement and inspire performance that drives profitability. Here are the characteristics of great leadership and what can go wrong when a leader lacks the skills to inspire.
Decisiveness
A decisive leader makes it easy for employees to fulfill their responsibilities, whether it’s managing the accounting and billing or installing new subscribers. When staff comes to you asking for guidance, it’s imperative to know the short- and long-term goals of your WISP and how to leverage staff to fulfill them so you can make quick, effective decisions.
If you aren’t decisive, there’s a whole host of things that can go wrong:
- You miss out on great opportunities with short windows to take action
- Your competitors get a bigger foothold in your territory when you’re slow to act
- Subscribers get frustrated with a choppy network when leaders can’t decide which tools to integrate to improve service quality
Not only will you have better outcomes when you’re clear on where to take your WISP and how, but employees will respect you for being a committed, decisive leader and will be inspired to work harder to please you.
Clear Communication
One way to avoid employee frustration and eventual apathy is to be clear about what’s necessary for the team to achieve desired outcomes. Being wishy-washy with your team communication can:
- Create employees disengagement that results in staff turnover
- Result in misunderstandings that create lost profit and higher costs due to rework
- Cause subscribers to see your WISP as flaky, unreliable or mismanaged
Passion
Without passion, you risk turning engaged employees into people that just show up to work for a paycheck. Then, you’ve got staff who just do the minimum, don’t go the extra mile for subscribers and don’t pitch in to help drive your WISP success.
Set an example for your staff by being excited about the good work your WISP does. You don’t have to be demonstrative like Tony Robbins to inspire action, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are both modern day leaders who inspire employees and followers with their focus and excitement about their respective industries.
Humility
Although confidence is a must when it comes to leadership, so is humility. Acknowledge the team for driving your WISP to success. If you don’t, then you’ll breed resentment among your staff. One bitter staff member can transform a productive team into a bottomless pit of seething animosity which can do serious damage to your organization’s reputation.
Make sure your employees know how much you value them and you’ll be surprised how far it goes to build respect and trust throughout your organization, that extends to subscribers and vendors.
Empowerment
Delegate responsibility and authority to build an engaged team. Turning over management responsibilities to elevate the success of your WISP isn’t easy, but it’s critical if you want to grow. Your goal is to find and tap key individuals who are focused and willing to put in the work to drive themselves, your WISP and you to greater success. Otherwise, the entire operation will rest on your already overworked shoulders and progress will be slow, if non-existent.
Embrace these characteristic to shape your WISP’s culture and develop engaged, focused and high-performing employees who are inspired and want to be involved in your organization’s growth beyond your wildest dreams.
Want to learn more proven #WISP Success tips? Visit the Visp.net/blog page.
