to inspire our employees

Ever wished your employees shared the same level of passion for the business that you have? It's a widespread desire among business owners, yet not everyone has been able to find the formula to make it happen.

Leaders of some of the best small workplaces have, by creating cultures where employees work with this kind of passion and cooperation. In these organizations, we've found that 94 percent of employees report a willingness to give more than is expected of them and 93 percent say they can count on each other to cooperate.

Short of giving employees an ownership stake, how can you inspire this level of passion at your workplace? The following practices may offer a path to follow.

Connect employees to the big picture.
Helping an employee to understand a business's strategy and situation allows him or her to look and act beyond their role. When leaders at Radio Flyer, the Chicago-based maker of children's toys, wanted all 55 of its employees to better connect their individual efforts with the success of the company, they launched an initiative called "Connect-the-Dots" -- a three-part program geared toward educating employees about the business. One part consisted of an internal class, called "Wagon U 102: Driving Our Economic Engine," which discussed how the compnay defines and measures financial success. Radio Flyer executives also broadly communicated the five company objectives for the year along with related metrics for each department. Upward communication was jointly employed as each department reported its impact to the business back to fellow employees.