How to Gain Staff Support to Further Your Business-Plan Vision

By Steven D. Peterson, Peter E. Jaret, and Barbara Findlay Schenck from Business Plans Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Your business plan presents the vision of what you want your company to become. By sharing it with everyone who has a stake in your company, you can create a sense of shared commitment and direction.

You don’t have to ask everybody to read and reread your business plan on a monthly basis. You can use other methods to keep your vision, mission, and business goals front and center. The following are some examples:

Reproduce your mission and vision statements in company newsletters, the employee handbook, and on the flip side of business cards.
Refer to your business plan whenever appropriate — during marketing strategy meetings or new product development forums, for example.
Use the plan as a yardstick when evaluating programs and initiatives.
Use your business goals and objectives as a guide when conducting employee performance evaluations.
Actively enlist feedback from everyone in the company when you prepare to reassess and revise your business plan.

People who own businesses usually work long hours, put up with tons of stress, and love every minute of it. They love it because they’ve built something of their own — a company that reflects their talents and inspirations — and they’re motivated by a strong pride of ownership.

Good leaders find ways to motivate employees so that they feel the same way, even when they’re part of a sprawling multinational firm. Here are some ways that you can inspire your employees and give them pride of ownership:

Give them a piece of the company, using stock-purchase plans that you tie to individual or team performance.
Pay out year-end bonuses tied to company profitability.
Give employees full control and responsibility for particular programs, including the freedom to make key decisions.
Reinforce the sense that they own the successes of the projects by rewarding them for jobs well done.

Although a performance bonus is always nice, you should recognize contributions in other ways as well. Consider an employee of the month award, write-ups in the company newsletter, a round of applause at the next company-wide meeting, or a heartfelt gesture of thanks. When motivating employees, simple morale boosters can be more effective than money.