I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.
I have been reading the 21 laws of leadership by John C. Maxwell. One of the laws that pops out at me is the law of addition. Leaders should serve others and make a positive impact. Did you understand their needs and desires? You need to in order to add value in a positive and meaningful way. This goes beyond a fair wage and hours. Often times when a team fails, businesses fire the managers. However, Maxwell believes in rehabilitation. I haven’t read the whole book yet but in my opinion if the team isn’t following the leader it is likely an issue with leadership. This is your failure and you can’t blame anyone else. You need to be accountable or you’ll violate another rule: the law of navigation which involves reflect on past experience to over come current challenges and predict conflict.
I think you should read self help books. There’s so many good ones. It’s changed the way I thought and it can help you too.