An alarming amount of employees are disengaged and disconnected from their jobs – a whopping 70%. With a number like this how do managers keep their employees performing and interested? An article on forbes.com suggests 5 ways to get the best out of your staff.
“Tone at the top” – Lead in a way that makes it easy for others to want to follow. Setting the right example by your own business behaviour – your own evenhandedness and ethics – makes it easy for your employees to respect you. Nobody wants to follow somebody they don’t respect, yet they’re eager to follow those they do. It’s always surprised me how often management doesn’t play by the same rules they ask others to – when setting a fine example costs nothing and only breeds productivity.
Take a sincere interest in the course of their careers – Studies show that high-performing companies routinely motivate their people by emphasizing career development. Any manager can too, easily. It’s human nature and only makes sense. All employees at all organizational levels are keenly interested in the course of their own careers. Showing genuine interest in helping employees gain the skills they need to succeed is a solid way to build lasting loyalty.
Ambitious but not unrealistic expectations – Both in formal job objectives and informal day-today managerial expectations, you want to set targets that stretch your employees but are attainable. Let them know you have high (but not unreasonable) standards, and at all times expect excellence. Competence breeds confidence, and successfully achieving ambitious goals motivates them to do it again.
Provide honest insightful feedback on a regular basis – The key word here is “honest.” As in candid feedback traveling in two directions – positive and negative, up and down… feedback that neither ducks the hard stuff nor ignores the positive stuff. If employees aren’t receiving regular feedback, how will they know if they’re doing well or need to course-correct? How can they give their best if it’s not completely clear what their best looks like?
Get to know who your people are – If you want to bring out the best in your employees, you have to, at least to some extent, understand them. Gain a basic understanding of what interests them, what bothers them, what they care about, what motivates them. Is it money, respect, praise, a bigger office, or a chance to spend more time with the kids? There are a multitude of possibilities. The better you know your people, the better chance you’ll have to pull the right managerial levers.
To read the full article, click here.
If you want to take these suggestions a step farther, reach out to us for more ways to get the most from your employees.
