Once you have an employee or two on-board, don't forget that you hired the best.  Respect their abilities and skills, and get out of their way.  You might think that you show your respect for your employees by signing their paychecks every two weeks, but that is just a bare minimum of what employees expect from their employer.

Human Resources expert Susan M. Healthfield lists respect as the first factor on her short list of employee expectations. In an article written for About.com, she states: "Respect is the fundamental right of every employee in every workplace. If people feel as if they are treated with respect, they usually respond with respect and dignified actions."[i]

In a separate article, she lists ten things employers can do to demonstrate respect.  Many of these are covered in other chapters in this book, but it's instructive to list them all here so you can see how they work together to create an atmosphere of respect within your company.  As you can see, most of them have their origins in the lectures your mother and Sunday School teacher used to give you.  They really are just that basic:

1. Treat people with courtesy, politeness, and kindness.
2. Encourage co-workers to express opinions and ideas.
3. Listen to what others have to say before expressing your viewpoint. 
4. Use people's ideas to change or improve work.  Let employees know you used their idea, or better yet, encourage the person with the idea to implement [it].
5. Never insult people, name call, disparage or put down people or their ideas.
6. Do not nit-pick, constantly criticize over little things, belittle, judge, demean or patronize. A series of seemingly trivial actions, added up over time, constitutes bullying.
7. Treat people the same no matter their race, religion, gender, size, age, or country of origin.
8. Include coworkers in meetings, discussions, training, and events [where possible.]
9. Praise much more frequently than you criticize.
10. Implement the platinum rule: treat others as they wish to be treated.[ii]
    

Because these rules are so basic, you might choose to rush through this chapter, thinking, "Well, of course, I always treat my employees with respect," but I would challenge you to stop and think for a moment about whether you really do so consistently. 

In the rush to get all the work done in a limited amount of time, do you ever rush to make a decision without considering employee input? 

How open are you to employee suggestions?  After all, you built this company and you got along just fine before you hired them and all of their newfangled ideas, right? 

Do you really praise more frequently than you criticize?  Many sources recommend you maintain a two-to-one ratio of praise to criticism.  It's actually pretty hard to keep that up, and I would be surprised to find anyone doing this continually without conscious thought.  I'm a pretty positive person, and I know for a fact, I do not maintain a two-to-one ratio because I've tracked myself before.