John Maddox
There are plenty of ways a business can obtain success, but they all revolve around your staff. The simple fact is that your staff is the lifeblood of your organization. And, without them, you can’t reach the levels of success that every company wants to reach. The problem with employees is that they don’t always work to their maximum. Some are lazy and only want to do the minimum amount while others lack leadership. Regardless, it costs you money.
Obviously, you want your firm to be as productive and efficient as possible, which means they need the same traits. To hit your goal, you need to extract every ounce of talent and skill that your workforce possesses. Only then can your business begin to reach astronomical heights.
Here are a few tips that will get the job done.
Tip 1: Believe In Them
The great thing about this first tip is that you don’t have to communicate outwardly with your staff. All you have to do is believe that they will do the job that you need them to do for your business to benefit. It might sound like new age mumbo jumbo, but it does work. Your belief in them will affect your body language and the way you communicate, as www.forbes.com illustrates. Instead of giving off a distant vibe that screams failure, you will give off an accepting vibe that screams success. Everything from looking them in the eye to your body position will fill them with confidence. Quite simply, your belief will transfer to them.
Tip 2: Demonstrate Your Belief
Now that you believe, it is time to show them that you believe. Some of your perceptive employees will pick up on the fact that you are a more open and caring boss. But, others won’t even blink. For their sake, you need to show them that you care. Otherwise, they will carry on as normal and not make any changes to their work habits. One awesome way to show that they are important to you is to listen to their thoughts and feelings. The fact that you are listening to them means you are taking the time to set aside your issues for their sake. Plus, it makes them feel more valuable if you don’t dismiss their ideas out of hand. Listening is a great tool because hardly anyone converses or listens anymore.
Tip 3: Be Honest
You are not a divine being, and you are not infallible. Yet, there are plenty of bosses that act that way, like they are a descendant of God. Just because you are in a position of power doesn’t mean that you are always right. Let your employees see that you understand this and that you are willing to be open and honest. Tell them about your strengths and your weaknesses and they will adopt the same strategy. For starters, it gives them the green light to admit that they have limitations because their boss has readily admitted the same. But, more importantly, it makes them think. The best employees among your staff should think, ‘my boss has limitations, so what are mine?’ If they take the bull by the horns, they can work out how to be better.
Tip 4: Understand Their Strengths And Weaknesses
Once they open up to you, listen to what they have to say. Every boss has some form of bias that they can’t fix. It is an occupational hazard of being a part of the human race as your past experiences mold the person you are today. The problem with this is that they can affect the way you treat your subordinates. For example, if you are a planner you might look down on someone that doesn’t plan. If you go one step further, you might even pressure them into changing their way of working. The result won’t work out in your favor because they won’t adapt. Instead, you need to understand that is how they work, and that it works for that individual. The more you change people, the less you will benefit.
Tip 5: Clear Communication
Businesses deal in specialist areas and use a lot of jargon. As such, your work might be complex and hard to understand. It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that your employees don’t understand their job. When that happens, productivity falls by a large amount. You have to be able to tell them what you expect of them on any given day to make the company tick. The best option is to talk to them in a simple and clear manner. Forget about using strange terms and abstract phrases, and break it down to its bare bones. That doesn’t mean you have to treat them as idiots because they are far from stupid. But, it does mean that you shouldn’t complicate the issue if possible.
Tip 6: Inspire Them
Inspiration can appear in many different forms, but fear tends not to work. The culture of fear in most businesses is apparent: the boss is the big cheese, and you can’t disappoint them. However, the problem with this culture is that it limits your staff’s ability to work creatively. As they don’t want a dressing down from their boss, they do whatever is required to get by. Another term for this is doing the bare minimum. Instead of putting them under pressure, out an arm around their shoulder. Use kindness and positive messages to inspire your team to bigger and better achievements. When you have to, you need to be firm. But, as long as you are fair, they should understand.
Tip 7: Praise Effort
Ability is not the be all and end all with employees. Yes, you need them to be able to do their jobs. Still, some people have the ability, but they need to unlock it first. Again, if they are working under intense pressure, they will fail. But, if you praise their effort as well as their ability, they will shine. Most employees recognize that they need time to improve. If you give them that time, you will be the one that benefits.
Tip 8: Give Them The Right Tools
It is plausible that they have all the ability in the world, but they don’t have the right tools. Your employees are nothing if they don’t have the equipment to do their job. It’s like asking a doctor to perform surgery without a scalpel – it’s stupid! Your duty as the boss is to make sure they have all the equipment they need, from infrastructure and tech to uniform. Don’t underestimate the importance of a uniform by the way. To use the medical analogy once more, uniform like scrubs is essential to basic tasks. For more on uniforms, visit http://www.uniformsandscrubs.com/landau.html.
Tip 9: Invest In Training
Training is essential if you want your staff to be better at their jobs. Firstly, training is a form of education. When they go on courses, they learn information that they can use to perform their role in the company to a higher standard. No training course, no information. And if there is no information, there is no increase in quality. Just as importantly, it is a gesture. The fact that you are willing to pay money to make them better is a sign that you value them as workers. You are trying to not only enhance the business but the business’s personal. Any intelligent person will see this and work harder. At the least, they should understand that training is good for them and their career, even if they don’t care about the company.
