What most human beings want – need – is clear:

• Agency – to make their own ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
• Mastery – to learn and master (even teach) new skills.
• Autonomy – to be free to choose how they make their dent.
• Purpose – to do this for something bigger than themselves.
• Community – to do all of the above with ‘people like us’.
• Status – to know (and for others to know) where they stand in their communities.

How much of each of these things an individual person needs is less clear.

Don’t try and work that out.

Instead, simply create a space where people can find for themselves enough of what they individually need.

You won’t do it by making everyone slavishly follow orders.

You won’t do it by leaving everyone to work everything out for themselves every time.

What works is something in between. Where people know what has to happen, why it has to happen, and the accceptable limits to how they can make it happen.

That’s the kind of space I aim to create for small business employers like you.

Where people don’t manage other people.

Where processes don’t manage people.

Where people manage processes that support them to deliver all these good things for their clients, and in doing so, deliver them for themselves, and for you.

Because you started your business to get all these things for yourself, didn’t you?