Knowing how to get the best performance from your employees can be difficult. The fact that you are running a business means that you have a fairly good dose of entrepreneurial spirit! So why not give your staff an opportunity to start thinking like entrepreneurs too in order to encourage growth?

One way to do this is to let them make decisions that have an impact on their work and then hold them accountable for the results. This might be small areas of authority to start with as you ‘test the waters’, but it begins to increase your employees’ commitment to your business and ultimately its success.

You can also assist your employees to set goals, but let them figure out how to achieve them. Not only does this give them some freedom and motivation, you may also find some surprising and unexpected ideas flowing from them.

Create a culture where employees are encouraged to experiment. Everything has the potential for improvement: the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is a poor mandate for your business. Ask employees to seek out changes that will have a positive impact on your business. In some instances, you might find that your current procedure or product or system is working in the best manner it can. But you will not know that until you consider and experiment with other options.

Always devote time for feedback from any of these changes in order to evaluate what went right or wrong. You (and your employees) can learn just as much from what worked as what did not work and strategies can be developed based on those lessons.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender