Clients and business owners ask me different forms of this question all the time. “Why don’t my employees work as hard as I do? Why don’t they put in the hours, go to the extra effort? Why do they go home at 5:00 when there is still work to be done?”

The short answer is because they aren’t you. You started this business because it’s your passion, it’s what you are made to do. All of the growth and profit are yours! You love this business more than anyone else does; no one is going to be as committed as you are.

But that doesn’t mean that our people can’t have real commitment to our enterprise. There are two things we can give them that really help build that willingness to go above and beyond; a sense of purpose and a way to measure progress.

If you are asking people to stay late so that you can go on a nicer vacation, or buy a bigger house, that’s not very motivating. Measuring your business success in terms of how much money it’s making for the shareholders doesn’t result in heroic acts by your team members. But if your business is about more than making money, if you have a higher purpose that your business is there to achieve, and if that higher purpose aligns with the values of your team members, people will heroicly rise to that challenge. You don’t have to take my word for it, Jim Collins has a terrific article about it too.

But just as they need a strong purpose, your people need ways to see that they are making progress or impact. As the owner you can pretty easily see the impact you are having on your small business. Each day you can weigh the gains and losses and decide what the score is. Do your employees have those same measurements? How do they know that those extra two hours in the office are achieving the goal and purpose you have for the business? How can they see the results of their extra efforts?

What can you do to more effectively communicate your purpose and a sense of progress to your team?

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Brad Farris is a small business advisor with Anchor Advisors, Ltd. in Chicago, Il. Since 2001 Anchor Advisors has been helping creative professional firms to grow, by helping them clarify their purpose, get the most from their people, keep their eye on key performance measures, and implement consistent processes. Brad is also the author of The Business Owner’s Champion: 6 Practices to Build your Nerve and your Business.