CEO’s look at growth as a positive thing but have you ever noticed that maybe your team members don’t? 

The word growth for CEO’s is an amazing thing. It’s what we are constantly striving for within our businesses. Personally I have always been motivated by my own company growth and the growth of the companies I help but oftentimes team members or employees can actually look at growth from a negative viewpoint. They often just see growth as more work for them. 

That’s why it’s important as a leader and CEO to create a ‘What’s in it for them?’ mindset within the company so that you reframe the growth not just about the company doing better but about their own circumstances and jobs improving too. When we can tap into that we can really motivate our employees to help the company grow. 

I first came across this technique with a previous company that I was working for as a CFO. The boss at this particular company gave me a choice one day between taking an annual 3% raise or increasing my salary by $10k every time the company’s revenue increased by a million dollars. 

This offer really intrigued me. At first my response was ‘Well I have no control over the company’s revenue, I’m the CFO and not in charge of the sales team, why would he offer me this?’ But I took him up on his offer and picked the $10k for every additional million dollars made as I thought it would give me the opportunity to make more money. I had already seen the company grow from $2 to $4 million dollars in the 4 years I had been there so I thought that this was the best option of the two. 

What I noticed in myself was that even though I wasn’t directly contributing to the company’s revenue by being in the sales team I became even more invested in the company’s growth and was excited every time I saw it growing. I was coming up with suggestions all the time for how things could improve and my motivation at work soared. 

Now I understand that I was pretty high up at that company and you can’t make this kind of offer to all of your employees because that wouldn’t be viable necessarily but why not pick out a key contributor, a member of your executive team who is already showing up for you but you want to motivate further through some kind of financial benefit. 

What about the rest of your team? Here are some other ‘smaller’ ways that you can motivate the rest of your team with:

1. Let them know that as the company grows you can offer more benefits and perks. 
2. Celebrate the company growth with your team, such as an end of year celebration that acknowledges that you couldn’t have done it without your team and that you’re not able to keep taking the company to the next level without their hard work and support. 
3. Present them with more advancement opportunities. Let your employees know that as the company grows and if they’re showcasing to you that they’re personally developing themselves that you will offer them the opportunity to grow into key leadership positions.

I see this final way with a lot of my clients who are struggling to be able to afford or attract some of the great talent out there. So instead they invest in coaching in order to take the talent they do have at the moment and develop them to the next level. By being loyal to the company and invested in the company’s growth they are rewarded with career advancements. 

Let me know which of these ideas stand out most to you? Is there one that you could start to implement this year in order to motivate your team further? 

Maybe you would still like some support around brainstorming ideas that fit into your current budget? If that’s the case then reach out and let’s get on a call to see what we can uncover for you. 

Watch my YouTube video on this topic: