Get your employees talk about the company they are working with – your company. Now this is already a thought on marketing but I thought I’d bring it out here as well. And note – I deliberately said “working with” not “working for”. Make your own conclusions. If your employees don’t talk about you, why would your customers/clients/readers talk about you? So go ahead and give your employees something to talk about, something great, something interesting, something weird, something unusual, give them something unusual to talk about your company.

As a leader, your job is people – period. Hire expertise BEFORE the growth. Hire the brightest that would HELP you grow. Not react to the growth and find people then.

You want to create a company where top performers would WANT to work. If you don’t, you’ll never make it. Your best employees also want to grow and learn. Offer training, send them to conferences.

You need to have a sense of purpose that your employees can believe in an relate to; you need to have extremely good two-way communication systems; you need to have an emphasis on making people feel appreciated; you need to have rewards and recognition for superior performance and meeting goals; regular and meaningful training; an opportunity to advance. Money is important but not the most important thing.

Giving people a sense of ownership is critical, whatever it means exactly Keep your employees involved.