Whether your business is a one man operation or a corporation that is several hundred employees strong. Getting the right support from those around you is critical to your success. Your staff employees, co-workers, vendors and colleagues each play a critical role, in your success, failure, or the perception that your clients/customers will have of you and your business.
It's no secret that good help is hard to find and when you find it, it's hard to keep. Unless you can succesfully create an environment that makes employees want to work for you, serve you, see you succeed and be a part of that success. In other words, your employees have to believe in you and believe in the work that you do. Good managers understand this concept and know how to lead employees through day to day activities that continually drives towards the goal. However doing this well, goes much further than leadership by example.
How to motivate employees. -- Do --
- Know your values and have a clear picture of your vision. Communicate this to employees frequently.
- Know your communication style and learn how it may come across to others. Know how/when to adapt.
- Communicate your expectations in detail. Then clarify that it is understood.
- Communicate the consequences of failure so that employees can correlate it to the value of their work. (I'm not referring to disciplinary action - I mean the direct impact to other co-workers and clients if a job is not well done.)
- Challenge employees with difficult tasks that are just within their abilities.
- Give employees the opportunity to set completion deadlines (when possible) for tasks, but hold them accountable to their self imposed deadlines.
- Celebrate success. Recognize employees that go the extra mile, but keep it in moderation. Success is an expectation, not a surprising result.
How not to motivate employees. -- Dont --
- Tell people what to do without making sure they understand the big picture.
- Delegate via email without at least having a conversation about what is expected.
- Assume employees know what you mean.
- Assign tasks beyond an employees capabilities.
- Fail to hold employees accountable for substandard performance.
- Be disrespectful to employees under any circumstances. Never direct foul language at a person.
- Celebrate your own personal success in front of employees, unless it relates to them. Keep your success private or in the appropriate circles.
The key to effective management, is to talk to employees as peers and not to talk down to them just becuase you hold a greater ranking title. Employees know who the boss is and they know that you've got the power. Don't hide behind your title and management power to tell employees what to do. Learn to create opportunities that motivates employees to do what you need, without you having to tell them to do it.
If you do this well, you'll have happy employees that want to see you succeed because they know that as you succeed, so do they. The reward is in the acheivement not the paycheck.
As a mortgage broker my immediate staff is small, but my list of support personnel consists of a long list of vendors, colleagues and other professionals that I need to manage. They're not on my payroll, but my business depends on them. If I want to be succesful, I better know how to manage those that support me.
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