A king lost his voice. Because of this, he had to rule and direct with written instructions. However, he never allowed his subjects to learn to read, so he also lost his kingdom.

This was a story I shared on Twitter during the Staff Service tweets a few weeks ago.  This is something we discussed in the internship WEDCHAT– keeping your employees and interns engaged enough to keep their interest, developing strong work habits and lengthen their retention with your company.
Holding back with your staff can prove to be more problematic to your company than beneficial. You could risk losing it all like the king above, in an misguided effort to prevent your staff from gaining knowledge.  If you increasingly find yourself preventing your staff of doing their jobs effectively and creatively under the guise to protect “proprietary information”, you will end up losing good employees and interns.  There is so much enthusiasm when newcomers enter into this industry. Don’t worry about someone running off with your information and starting their own company.  They will certainly do that if they are not kept engaged and productive.  Being able to share your knowledge, harness that enthusiasm and cultivate talent is what will make your internship and employee programs a success.

How secure is your kingdom?  Could it better locks or just some oil on the hinges to make sure that everything works together for a common purpose?