Do you feel frustrated because your employees aren’t taking ownership of their work? Does it seem like you have to constantly send reminders and follow-up with your employees before a task is completed?

If so, you’re not alone. Employee accountability is a big issue for business owners. Ideally, every person who is hired to join a company will take full responsibility for his or her work and even go above and beyond when the occasion requires. The reality, though, is often different. It’s not uncommon for business owners to struggle with getting employees to fulfill their responsibilities.

Finding and hiring good employees has always been a challenge for business owners, but it’s especially true today. The labor market is tight, leading to higher expectations from employees for special perks or accommodations, and less incentive to stay. Even a successful company that is well-run and has a healthy workplace environment can find it difficult to retain employees.

Needless to say, a great deal of time and effort go into hiring a new employee, which makes the question of how to find good people—people who are the right fit for a company—more pressing than ever. In this article, we’ll share three hiring tips that can be used to help ensure that each new employee is a good fit for the team.

Gallup recently reported that the percentage of engaged workers in the U.S. in 2021 was just over one-third (34%), and that a full 16% of employees were actively disengaged in their work and workplace. This marks a decline from 2020, and the first decline in more than a decade.

Given these troubling numbers, there’s a good chance you are facing that same challenge in your workplace. While there is plenty of speculation about what might be the reasons for the disengagement, the questions that we’re going to address in this article are 1) How can you tell if your employees are disengaged? and 2) What can you do about it?

We’re excited to announce that the Stages of Growth Online Series is now available! This video series breaks down the concepts that inform Organizational ReWilding in an easy-to-understand format. It is recommended to any business owners or leaders who are looking for research-driven strategies to help grow their businesses.

One of the phrases that is often used in the Organizational ReWilding® methodology is “Structure, Clarity, and Focus.” While not a key element package, these important concepts underpin many of the principles and lessons that are part of the methodology. The purpose of this article is to take a closer look at what makes this phrase so meaningful—first by defining each term in the phrase and then connecting them to specific key elements.

Leadership is the guiding body of the organization. As the company grows, the Non-Negotiable Rules and structure of its Leadership must change and evolve as well.

All activity in an organization falls into three fundamental areas: People, Profit, and Process. Think of each of these as a door or gate behind which lies opportunities for the organization to grow. At any given Stage of Growth, the patterns observed in growing businesses suggest that there is an ideal order of prioritization of these three Gates. Said another way, one of these three holds the greatest opportunity for growth in your organization, based on your Stage of Growth.

In addition to being a unique methodology for business growth, Organizational ReWilding also employs a distinctive learning system to impart the methodology—one that was designed based on the latest research in adult learning methods. Why? Because business owners and leaders are pressed for time and need solutions they can remember easily and implement quickly.

The functions within a company that keep it running effectively and producing revenue are referred to collectively as Operations. Essentially, Operations are the inner workings of the company—how everyone functions, how the processes run, and how the organization executes the delivery of goods or services they are producing.

Business Model & Plan refers to the core structures of how you architect your business. The Rules for this dimension govern critical areas like revenue groups, offerings, customer segments, and operational and strategic plans.

Workplace Community refers to the overall health and integrity of the group of people who work together in an organization. The Rules that govern these interactions have to do with promoting strong and clear communication, providing a common framework that makes it easier to get things done, and establishing common values.

If you are a business owner or leader, there’s no doubt that you are facing challenges with running your company. It may help you to learn that you’re not alone in these challenges. In fact, our research has shown that companies face similar top challenges according to their Stage of Growth.

When my business partner and I decided to get a valuation of our company, back in 2012, we were 12 years into our tenure as business owners. We had built a legal professional services business that was running successfully and paying the bills, but we wanted to know what it was actually worth.

When I was in the ninth grade, my dad lost his business. He was 50 years old at the time, and while he lived to be 71, I can say that, in many ways, he never recovered from the blow.

What are the Non-Negotiable Business Development Rules?

Business Development Rules focus on the functions of a company that generate, sustain, and grow revenue. These functions include Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service.

All businesses need to focus on six essential areas in order to prosper and grow. Without giving adequate attention to these areas, the business will inevitably suffer. These six foundational areas are:

The Three Faces of a Leader measures the proportion of time and energy a leader spends embodying the three primary leadership roles, or faces, within an organization. The three faces are Visionary, Manager, and Specialist.

The Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth, formerly known as the 7 Stages of Growth, is a business growth methodology based on the distinct stages businesses grow through. Each Stage has rules of growth, which if followed, create the environment for sustainable, profitable growth.

Over a decade ago, James Fischer published the book, Navigating the Growth Curve, in which he presented a groundbreaking methodology for understanding how businesses grow.  Based on decades of research and observation of small and mid-sized businesses, Fischer discovered how the complexity of an organization drives the rules by which a business must operate to continue to grow.

Understanding the stages of business growth, and how companies progress through these stages, is essential for any entrepreneur hoping to thrive in the chaotic beginnings of starting a company.