Berger Leadership Blog

The people-side of your organization may be more important than you think. Employee performance has a direct impact on you, other team members, customers and, ultimately, your bottom line.

Leadership guru Peter Economy explains this by offering seven leadership rules that will help you focus on your people and at the same time positively impact your bottom line. They include:

1. Watch what you reward. "Carefully consider exactly what it is that you want your employees to do, and then reward them only when they do it," he writes.
2. The best business is common sense. While there will always be new fads in management, don't discount your own common sense.
3. If you don't like the way things are today, be patient. "[F]lexibility and adaptability are two of the most important characteristics for business people to possess," Economy says.
4. Leadership is a people job. Always put your people (employees) first.
5. Leading is what you do with people, not to people. This includes providing your employees with adequate training and supporting their growth.
6. Make work fun – and profitable. Your employees should want to come to work for you every day; make that a priority.
7. Always ask: What do our customers value? Your focus should be on what your customers want.

Economy writes that if a leader is too busy focusing on product development or the next marketing campaign and in turn neglects their employees, that leader should expect not only performance to suffer but also the organization's bottom line.

Your employees are your greatest asset; treat them that way and your organization will find success.

Follow me on Twitter (@BDanBerger).