Make ‘Em Beg To Work For You

It should be straightforward: you do your job, and when it becomes too much work for one person, you hire someone to give you a hand, and allow the company to grow. And yet, very often, Company founders are unhappy with their employees: those that decide to pay someone to do a certain job in the same way they would do it themselves if only they had the time, are guaranteed to end up disappointed.

Let's take the example of the author, Angela Lauria: she is not embarrassed about her Asperger Syndrome, she actually lists it as one of her positive features, enabling her to concentrate on one single priority at a time without being distracted, and to work through the most minute details without getting lost or overwhelmed; to make logical and rational decisions; to find the most random connections between different disciplines, and, to recognise and tell the truth without any problems whatsoever. On the other hand, however, she has to live with the anxiety of not knowing how to interact with others, and not being able to understand nonverbal communication. These last two characteristics are fundamental in work and in groups, and therefore in the development of a company. Therefore, she needed to hire certain other personality types that could do the things she couldn't.

She did have to make sure, however, that these people were aligned with her ideas and were equally as motivated, given that the future of her company would be in their hands. So she got to work on learning the best way to build a working team. Before thinking about attracting customers, you have to acknowledge the importance of your colleagues: the company exists to fulfil their wishes!

The era of the domineering boss has come to an end. On a cultural level, we are no longer convinced by hierarchy: people are no longer content with doing something just because “the boss said so”. The first step is to create your own brand: no matter how focused you are on the results, the logo and graphics are of great value. Your company logo needs to be so attractive that your employees will want to get tattoos of it! Although communication is key, it is also incredibly difficult to organise and to manage. We need to treat our team as we treat our clients… if not better! To get what we want from people, it is not enough to hire intelligent staff and tell them what to do, because people are not machines, and their emotions cannot be ignored.

Procrastination, laziness, and disorganisation are only manifestations of a deeper desire to do something else. To make sure your employees do not put their assignments off, you need to give them something more than a To Do List: they need to be included in a vision that goes beyond the company and reaches the community, the country or even the whole world.