Getting results from workers is one of the greatest challenges of modern employment. However, senior staff are in a unique position to guide employees to success across a wide range of roles. Extended support, whether grouped one-to-one, helps retain talent and adds value to the work. When employees feel valued, they will work in a more productive manner that benefits you, them and the company. From communication to getting to know your staff, here are some ideas.
Help them Explore Alternatives
The time often comes when even talented employees can get stuck in a rut, so to speak. Work performance can drop with burnout, personal matters, and self-doubt. While there isn’t anything you can do about most of these, you can support workers from a workplace perspective. One of the most impactful is helping staff explore alternative approaches to work. For example, adopting an ABM strategy that shifts the focus of accounts from individuals works for everyone.
Guide Employees with Clear Communication
Employees often feel a sense of disenchantment when they can’t see a direction in their work. As a manager or supervisor, you have a responsibility to ensure those working under you know what they are supposed to do. However, around 69% of managers surveyed state they are uncomfortable with workplace communication. This is something you can work on directly that benefits your employees. Training seminars and doing it in practice will build your confidence.
Use Feedback to Your Advantage
Feedback is a vastly underused tool across many workplaces. However, it is extremely valuable and can be analyzed to extract masses of data. Feedback can also run in both directions. You can use incoming feedback from workers to make positive changes that benefit everyone. Yet you can also give feedback to employees. But this should always be handled delicately. You can use constructive feedback to bring up areas for improvement in a non-threatening way.
Develop a Plan to Guide Employees
One of the more comprehensive ways to guide employees to success in work is to work on a plan. Together, you can come up with solutions that work immediately and over time:
- Create a plan based on short and long-term goals and objectives.
- Include high-performance work-related tasks within the development plan.
- Work with HR on a performance-boosting framework for tracking progress.
- Work to a timeline that suits you and the employees you work with.
- Be specific about actions and commitments that need to be taken.
- Try not to push boundaries and work within safe workload limits.
Like most things, tasks become easier when there is a plan in place. Of course, all employees are different. So it helps to tailor plans to individuals rather than take a blanket approach.
Work on Building Strengths
We all have personal and workplace strengths and weaknesses. Many employees fear that they will be called out based on things they don’t do well. And doing this can be considered bad management. Instead of fear-mongering at work, everyone works better when there is a positive atmosphere. Praising strengths and developing them helps employees become better at what they do. Of course, there is a balancing act, as you don’t want to cultivate toxic positivity!
Guide Employees through Career Progression
It can be a privilege to watch an employee grow from the start and become the best at what they do. In a senior position, you can be the guide through a career that your workers need. This helps make any job more fulfilling for you and your staff. That being said, around 93% of American workers feel they are trapped in a dead-end job. Support and guidance, with employee wellbeing in mind, will help cultivate a workplace of happy, stress-free employees.
Get to Know People
There is often a disconnect between general staff and senior team members. But the simple act of getting to know people at work helps put anyone under you at ease. Many high-level CEOs make a point of remembering people’s names just so they feel valued at work. Small acts like this can have a massive positive impact on the welfare of staff in the workplace. A simple “good morning,” asking basic questions, and staying friendly will boost staff morale at the office.
Summary
Supporting alternative approaches to how they work is a great start to guide employees to success. Feedback is an excellent way to critically support your staff and address any issues. But even getting to know your staff on a basic level helps them feel valued while at the office.
Contributed Post
CC0 Licensed Image Courtesy of Pexels
