Good to Great: How to Scale With an Outsourced CFO

Generally speaking, current organisation attitudes toward employee motivation have long roots in outdated perceptions.

If for instance you want to inspire workers and increase your business productivity, the conventional wisdom has always been this: add one or two zero’s to their baseline bonus and all should be well.

Not true! 

This is not to say that money doesn’t play a significant role towards retaining and stimulating your work force - it definitely does – but here’s the thing: it is not the ONLY factor.

Most businesses are foregoing such linear line of thinking (which says money fixes all) and adopting motivational techniques that also spurs the self-determination of their staff.

Here’s some of our ideas that will assist in improving your team motivation procedures:

1. Empower your team to be autonomous

Entrusting your employees to be independent thinkers is singularly one of the most important ways to keep them fired up and enthused. You can create this kind of independence by:

1. Not micro managing – Let your workers figure out the best course of action towards solving a business problem – you can offer a general overview, but not specifics. This then instigates resourcefulness and out-of-the box thinking that any employer would find useful.
2. Being results driven - Consider placing emphasis on a work environment that is driven by results and not necessarily bound to schedules. This shift of emphasis enables employees to have flexibility over when they finish tasks.
3. Allowing teamwork selection – in the same vein of autonomy and flexibility, grant your employees some leeway in assembling the team they intend to work with on a project. You will be fostering a feeling of community.
4. Pursuing passion projects – allow your workers to have side projects unrelated to their assigned task as a form of “creative outlet”. What companies like Google – whom champion this thinking - have realised is that such artistic endeavors have a way of birthing worthwhile innovation that eventually helps their business in the long run. 

2. Encourage employee to be experts

Companies need to make sure that they are creating environments that are conducive for continuous learning and skill acquisitions. Here’s how you can cultivate such an atmosphere:

1. Provide clear objectives – by being granular and unambiguous with the intended business goals, your workers then know exactly what they’re working towards and can apply themselves towards making that goal happen.
2. Offer on-going feedback – giving your team immediate feedback is great because they know whether or not they’re going in the right or wrong direction. This way processes can be quickly put in place to tweak and fine-tune accordingly.
3. Delegate tasks that stretch employee’s capabilities – In assigning your team tasks, ensure that they take your employees out of their comfort zone. What this affords is a kind of elasticity that keeps them fully engaged and reduces boredom.
4. Have numerous resources in place – whether it’s online training, industry accreditations, business seminars or even lunch-and-learns, organisations need to make the pivotal investment in a wide range of resources that provides both professional and even personal development.

3. Purpose before profits

Management needs to instil a culture that speaks to a cause greater than themselves and their employees – one that is beyond making money and is unselfish in nature.

This overarching vision also needs to be frequently communicated to employees in an inclusive manner – by using pronouns like “Us” and “We”. It fosters a communal feeling that will be evident in the way they speak about the company to outsiders. 

Ultimately, when it comes to having an ambitious and satisfied worker, companies need to remember that this is only achieved by having a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. 

That way you’re more likely to retain top talent (despite courting from competitors) who will have no issues reinvesting in the company because of the sense of loyalty they have for your organisation.

Good luck!