Focus on employees to find success, business leaders say.

Other company executives like Paul Blom, owner of Right at Home, a home health agency, will call what he does servant leadership.

Whatever employee-centered leadership philosophy someone follows, Blom believes trusting his workers builds loyalty and that has been paramount in health care for the past several years.

“We have a retention rate of 94 percent in an industry where retention is lucky to be 50 percent,” he said of the firm, which placed fifth among small companies on the list.

To be successful, Blom said, leaders must communicate clearly. Gardner agrees.

Every Friday, Blom sends out an email and text to employees in which he shares both personal anecdotes and a business update, with reminders on deadlines and anything new.

“I’ve established a sense of ‘You know me, and you know me well,’ and that kind of establishes a certain degree of trust, because my communication is very heartfelt and genuine and transparent,” he said. “I literally have newer staff who will say, ‘I’ve never felt that I know the owner of the company as well as I do this company.’”