Your accounting teams are giving their all to your company. They stay late, work hard, catch every detail, follow every shifting regulation, and spot every tax and financial issue that can keep your company out of the red and ahead of the competition. But as hard as they work to drive your company forward, they may have one big obstacle standing in the way: you.

Here are a few simple moves that can help you bring out the best in your teams and encourage their ingenuity during the year ahead. Empower everyone on your staff to join together and make this the best year ever.

Have a meaningful mission

What does your company actually provide or produce? Take a close look at your business model and make sure your mission reflects something important, something that extends beyond lining the pockets of your shareholders. If you can’t find any value in your mission at all, that’s a problem. But chances are, you can draw a link between what this company does and how these actions impact the larger world. Articulate that mission and share it with your teams. Working here should mean more than just collecting a paycheck.

Embrace Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese principle that translates to “continuous improvement”. Instead of attempting great leaps forward or radical transitions (and then considering these endeavors a failure when they don’t materialize as planned), turn your attention to small changes. Keep these small improvements continual, and over time, many of them will become the habits and practices that turn you into leaders in your industry. Encourage your employees to make small, almost insignificant changes every single day. Encourage them to discuss these changes with their supervisors and each other, until this practice becomes part of the fabric of your workplace culture.

Prepare the soil for ideas

If you dismiss or belittle your employees, or treat them with unconscious gesture of contempt, they’ll stop coming to you with their thoughts, suggestions, and potential process improvements. On the other hand, if you embrace their contributions, the opposite will happen. Keep your ears and your door open, and respond positively when your teams take risks or speak up. This is the best possible way to foster innovation, change, and a sense of individual agency.

Create meaningful and effective channels to progress

When your employees have something to contribute or some constructive criticism to offer, they shouldn’t have to go searching for a way to send this message to the executives and decision makers with the power to put these suggestions into action. Create communication channels that can help employees turn spark and fleeting ideas into company realities.

For more on how to encourage teamwork, ownership, and engagement in your workplace, turn to the staffing and business management experts at Cordia Resources.