Business Half-Truth #2: Look after your employees first.
I’ve seen too many turn this into making customers a distant second (or third).
Yes, team is important. And if you treat your team as an investment, rather than a cost, then your business should reap rewards.
But “employees first” works well ONLY IF you have a culture that’s obsessive about creating value for your customers (and in my books, the community as well), or if there’s a unifying vision or purpose about creating exceptional value. If you create a self-obsessed culture, which is easily done by focussing only on your team, then your team won’t look after your customers. And your business will fail.
So yes, employees first. But within a culture that prizes creating disproportionate value to your clients.