Authored By Adam Green

@GaryVee is a new biweekly column featuring entrepreneur and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk, where he will share advice on business and leadership with the Chattanooga community.

For my first column here on Nooga.com, I wanted to talk about four problems you may face as a company leader in 2016 and offer my solutions to them. Over the past year, I opened a branch of my digital agency VaynerMedia right here in Chattanooga, and every single one of these were things we had to consider as it grew. Whether you’re a small business or an agency representing Fortune 500 companies, these issues are extremely common and will always need to be addressed if you hope to grow and maintain your business.

1. Motivating employees when they don’t want to put in the work.

Everybody is motivated by different things. We all have our own dreams, aspirations and beliefs that drive us. Never think for a second that money drives all motivation. It’s simply not true.

People are in the game for multiple reasons, and the only way for you to understand that is to listen. Once you understand, then you can set employees up to be in a place for them to deliver on it. And that gives them incentive to always work their hardest for you, because you did it for them. Get it?

So you need to use your ears and listen to your employees. You need to sit down with them and understand where they want to take their careers. What’s their ambition? What do they want to do with their life? By sitting down with people and actually listening, you’ll be able to set up your employees for success while also motivating them to work hard and fast.

Also, it makes you a good boss. So there’s that.

2. Is the customer really always right?

When I have an angry customer, the very first thing I want to know is if they are right. I talk to the parties involved, and I get all the information possible that I can. In the end, someone has to make a call, and as the boss, that is probably going to have to be you.

Nobody likes a boss who passes the buck.

If the customer is 100 percent right, you apply something that everyone in sales or customer service needs: empathy. You come in with nothing but empathy. I ask questions, and I listen before trying to fix it. I’ve talked in the past about how great leaders are listeners. This applies just as much to this situation as well.

3. Meeting client demands and agency capabilities.

As I’ve been building my agency VaynerMedia over the past six years, there is something I often hear from clients, which is this: “Well, you do social, not digital. So we are going to go with _____.”

I believe that the top seven people are what make any company tick. Now, if those top people picked up and went to a new company, that new company would start to be like the place they all came from. Think about it. What about sports teams? There is no “The Lakers are great.” It’s Kobe and Jack playing on a team, so the Lakers become good. It’s not the Knicks winning when the Knicks have Willis Reed and Clyde Frasier. It’s the people who make up the team.

Get where I am going with this?

If you’re a decision maker at an agency, or running a company yourself, and you’re disappointed because you’re not as good as some other company or jealous that they are doing something you’re not-stop it. Stop being jealous of their capabilities and go out and hire for your client’s needs. Find the people that are doing it and make them part of your team.

4. Culture comes from the top, including bad culture.

I’ve talked a lot about how everything stems from the top when it comes to company culture. The way you act and behave in your company dictates a huge amount of how the culture will be.

Don’t like how some of your leadership is acting? It’s on you. Talk to them. Set an example.

Want to establish a casual dress code? It starts with you.

Think the company needs to have less meetings? Once again, you need to start having fewer meetings.

Everyone will be looking to you to dictate the situation. Don’t forget that in your day to day around the office.

Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur, CEO, investor, keynote speaker and social media expert. He was named to both Fortune and Crain’s 40 under 40 lists in consecutive years and has been profiled in the New York Times, Fortune and Inc. You can connect with him through Facebook, Twitter and his YouTube show called The #AskGaryVee Show. The opinions expressed in this column belong solely to the author, not Nooga.com or its employees.