Business Success: It’s All About the People

Posted by Chuck Kocher
On August 30, 2011

You can have the best products and services in the world, but unless you have the right people in place to deliver them, your business won’t succeed. No matter what else you do—it’s always all about the people.

As a business coach, I constantly run into companies that struggle with the people side of their businesses. Over the years, I’ve noticed two key areas in the people side of the equation that businesses need to deal with.

Start at the top. If you’re a business owner, you need to look at yourself first. What kind of leadership are you providing for your company? Do you encourage and stimulate the growth and development of your employees? Or, are you more of a “benevolent dictator,” who tells people exactly what you want them to do?

You might even have to ask yourself a really tough question: Are you leading at all? Just because you’re in charge and signing the checks doesn’t make you a good leader. Giving orders doesn’t make you a good leader. How are your leadership skills?

Build the right team. Once you’ve taken a look at your own leadership skills, you need to take a look at what you’re doing to develop a top-level, high-performance, winning team. How are you going to get the right talent in the right place on your team? How can you ensure that you’ve got the right people doing the right things consistently?

Great companies know that getting the right people in the right spot is hugely important for success. And here’s how they know they’ve done it: Their people are happy. In companies with great leadership and a great team, those team members will tell you that they’re happy, that they trust their team, and that they’re growing a great company.

What do you think? What leadership skills do you think are critical? How do you evaluate your leadership skills? What do you think are key steps in developing a great team?

How Prepared is Your Company to Scale?

Find out by taking our Business Scalability Assessment.

Want to Get the Most For Your Company When You Sell It?

Find out how your company looks to prospective buyers by taking our Value Drivers Assessment.