People are what make up a company.
Whether you’re a team of two or a team of 1,000, people are the reason the whole thing works.
But people can also be one of the most challenging parts of managing a business.
Very few founders have a background in HR, and most truly fear having to manage lots of people (I know I did!).
The good news is there are ways of building a team around you that can align to your goals – one of which is to build a digital library (more on this in a second).
How do I keep my team inspired and empowered?
It’s important for you to stay inspired, informed, and hungry to keep the machine growing. But it’s EQUALLY as important that your team feels the same way.
A few months ago, I was speaking with friends who work for a multi-billion dollar company. The conversation turned to how the CEO asked all the employees to read a book a week and then write a book report.
The employees turned it into a competition to see who could write the best book report, ultimately pushing each other to retain more information.
“I just sit in my office and read all day.”
Warren Buffet
For most of us, that’s a little extreme, which is probably why most of us won’t get to $4bn+.
But, the principle of pushing your team to always learn and grow through reading is crucial.
That stuck with me as one of the key ingredients for a company’s success. So I immediately upped my own reading efforts. I built the new habit into my morning routine, but I realized that I was gaining all this information and showing up to meetings with my team speaking as if we had all learned this together.
I quickly realized I had no system to empower my team to learn with me!
This is when I came up with the idea of a digital library.
What is a digital library?
A digital library is essentially a digital book store that I pay for, to incentivize my team to read the books that I believe make up the framework to our company, and how we view business and life.
Simple, but highly effective!
How do I build a digital library for my team?
Step #1 – Create your list of books that really made an impact on your perspective about areas of business.
Step #2 – Organize the list into categories:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Operations
- People
- Finance
- Product
- Customer Service
- Personal Development
- Life and for FUN!
Create a simple google sheet with the booklist.
Step #3 – Create an Amazon Business account (if you don’t have one already).
- Create a “List” called “X Company Library”
- Invite your assistant (if you have one), enabling them to help you add and distribute books
Step #4 – Go through Amazon and find all your favorite books. Now add them to the list!
Step #5 – Send out an email letting the team know that you have created a library for them to gain access to all your favorite books.
- Ask for any suggestions that should be added
- Set a limit, if you’re on a budget
- To me, there’s no better investment than my team’s knowledge, so I don’t put one
Step #6 – Maintenance
- Anytime a new book is added, send an email to your team letting them know it’s there and remind them to use it.
That’s it! You’ve immediately shown your team that you care about them for minimal investment.
Bonus feature:
There is nothing more confusing in this world than personal finance. We spend our whole frickin’ lives trying to gather money (‘fun tickets’ as I jokingly call them).
If you can add books about personal finance in there or books that really benefit THEM, then you are going to earn major brownie points.
Now you’re paying them AND informing them on how to take care of that money, while helping their family prosper.
If there’s a better way to solidify a team, I am yet to hear it!
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to read our guide to building a healthy reading habit!
