Entrepreneurs, when was the last time you sat down with one of your employees and asked them:

• What’s the most significant obstacle to doing your job?
• Does your job challenge you?
• What can the company be doing better?
• What do our customers think of our company/products/services?

It’s easy to avoid these conversations because we know we’ll have to deal with the flaws such questions will expose.  But it’s better to do the hard work of resolving the things that are holding you back than to pretend they aren’t there.

Ask these questions regularly and your business can flourish.  Don’t and it will languish.

In a small, growth-minded company, there are three key qualities to look for in a “tech” hire:

1. Technology skills – Duh.  This isn’t necessarily the most important quality, but naturally it’s up there.  No tech skills, no tech hire.  What we’re looking for here isn’t gobs and gobs of experience, but fluency in at least one area (e.g. C++, network administration, database administration, image processing, etc), the ability to identify and solve problems, and the capacity to acquire deep knowledge quickly.
2. People skills – Engineers with no people skills are so common they’re cliché.  They can be excellent precision instruments, but in a fast-paced, growth-focused environment they can be deadly.  Technical staff that work so well with others that they make them better at their jobs aren’t just employees, they’re force multipliers.
3. Business awareness – It’s very easy to find a geek who’s thrilled about building cool stuff regardless of whether or not your business needs it.  Avoid them or you will be tearing your hair, rending your clothes, and wishing you were folding denim at The Gap.  Experienced technologists with good business sense know how to deploy technology to support the business.  Cost/value calculations are second nature to them, and their solutions to problems just make sense.

Finding someone with all of the above is difficult, but well worth the effort.  When you do, grab them, share your vision with them, and keep them close.

If you’re a business owner or manager you have probably at one time or another wished for the ability to clone yourself.  “If I could just have 10 more of me,” you think, “this business would grow like crazy.”

Once employees are trained (also an important task, but not very difficult) it’s critical to keep them motivated to run the business with the same level of attention and energy that you do.  A few well-trained employees who treat your business like their own are an army capable of building something great.

So how do you motivate an employee?  Money only works for so long, and fear quickly backfires.

Instead, invest in them.

Take the time to find out what makes them tick.  Ask them what they need to get better at their jobs and give it to them.  Support them, nurture them, help them become better at their jobs and at life.

If you take an interest in people and help them grow, not only will they be more valuable to your business, but they will adopt your vision as their own and work their asses off for you.

Better yet, investing in people makes you a better person and your little corner of the world a better place.

Sappy?  Yeah, a bit.

Truth?  Absofreakinlutely.