Time and again people ask me how they can get more out of their employees. How can they get them to go the extra mile, take the initiative, to care…
Here are 3 simple steps to helping employees find empowerment:
1. Create a supportive environment and communicate what the organization is about. Let employees know what we are trying to create and do for our customers. Share your thoughts and feelings and encourage employees to do the same. Listen to their ideas…after all, they probably know what’s working and not working better than we do!
Fundamentally, when they know we care, they will care too.
2. Work to build relationships based on trust and respect. To build trust, do what you say you are going to do. To build respect, listen to people.
In a survey of 3500 organizations, it was asked: “What’s holding back quality?” The top two answers (70%) given by Sr. Management were lack of trust and poor communication and the link between respect and communication is simply, if we don’t respect each other, we’re definitely not going to listen to each other. If we’re not listening to each other, we’ll have diffferent ideas and expectations of what each side said they would do…and when it doesn’t happen, we lose trust.
3. Come to agreement with employees on the results we want and then get out of their way. Give them the right tools, the right guidance, the right training and let them do the best they can. They won’t usually do it our way and they’ll make mistakes, but in the end the results will be the same and they’ll be able to take pride in what they helped create.
Three easy steps, not really so easy, but if we can give ’em a try and get out of our own way, it works great! If you need some help with employee empowerment, send me a note: ernest@ealewisconsulting.com
Best Regards! – E