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Every winning horse has a great trainer who thinks about tomorrow's challenges while the horse is winning races today. Similarly, each person in an organization has unique strengths and we do our best when we recognize and develop them fully. The seeds of tomorrow's successes must be planted today. Measure and Track Employee Development Efforts How much time and effort do you or other managers in your organization put into developing star performers? If we did a careful time analysis of your daily schedule, we might find that the amount of time spent on employee coaching and development is under one percent, since that is pretty typical in today's busy workplaces. The only way to improve that number is to start tracking it. How can you manage something you weren't aware of? That's what they did at Sears Credit. Now front-line supervisors and managers are not only encouraged to focus on employee development—they are expected to keep a log of their development efforts and be able to show that they put 80 percent of their time into development-related activities. Their new job definition is to be helping associate develop their skills instead of trying to do the work themselves. Make Sure Opportunity Knocks Often for Your Employees Opportunities are powerful motivators—whether they are short-term opportunities to tackle an interesting challenge in your work, or long-term opportunities to grow and develop in your career. Yet in the hustle and bustle of daily work it can be hard for leaders to make sure everyone is aware of and pursuing appropriate opportunities. Research suggests that employees often lose commitment and leave a job because they think they lack opportunities there. Managers need to make a better effort to keep everybody "opportunity focused." One approach is ecemplified by First USA Bank's Opportunity Knocks Program. Employees participating in the program attended career development sessions to explore their interests and stregths and define career development goals, and then they worked with their managers to gain additional experience and training to help them achieve those goals. Promotions and retention rates were dramatically higher than normal for participants in the program and an internal survey showed significant increases in employee satisfaction. You can assume that your employees can figure out to grow on their own, but this case shows that people often need guidance to help identify their next steps and assistance in preparing for them as well. Offer Opportunities, not Knocks The re is a fine line between opportunities and problems. In fact, one person's exciting opportunity can be another's high-stress crisis. You want to be careful as a leader not to overload employees with opportunities and create more stress than motivation by accident. But it can be hard to knwo whether someone is truly enthusiastic about a new assignment or challenge—or secretly concerned and distressed. In fact, as long as you offer opportunities on a yes/no basis, many more people will say yes tha probably should have because they will assume you expect them to. To get around this, offer a range of options for their involvement, including low-key easy option, at least one mid-level option, and finally a full-blown challenge that would be a big step for them. Then ask which one they'd prefer. Give them a few days to answer if they need it. That way, people will tend to find their right level of challenge. Puzzle Contests One company has a number of crossword puzzle fanatics in it. Periodically they get multiple copies of the daily newspaper, hand out the crossword puzzle to volunteer teams of employees, and see which team can complete it accurately first. It creates a fun rivalry and employees enjoy it—and also gain confidence in this specific skills, which tends to spill over to their attitude toward work as well. This is, incidentally, also a good way to get employees sharing knowledge and cooperating, so it's a good rapport builder for work groups or teams as well. The Gift of Choice Do you have any idea how many aspects of working life are controlled by red tape, regulations, or requirements in your workplace? Most managers operate with a lot more latitude than their employees do. It makes a difference in their attitude and approach to work—a big difference. When it comes to the top executive or the business owner, the amount of freedom they have is dramatically more than their employees. They are permitted to decide what they think they ought to do each day, and even when, where, and how to do it. The average employee is treated like a felon by comparison—their employers do not trust them in the least. Yet they are expected to act lile owners themselves, to care, to take initiative, and take the company's problems and challenges to heart. It's a testament to the integrity of the average employee that they continue to do a decent job even when treated like they cannot be trusted. While we could gripe and grumble all day about how terrible it is to have tigh controls that signal distrust of employees, the truth is that this presents a remarkable opportunity for us, rather than a problem. Because if you as a leader give employees a little more control than they are used to and show them you trust them more than most managers do, they will respond to this humane treatment surprisingly well. It doesn't take much water to make a desert bloom. Help Employees Net Meaningful Volunteer Opportunities Encouraging employees to do volunteer work of their choice is not only good for society but very good for the company because of the powerful harvest of positive feelings and self-confidence that comes from helping others. Employees who make a difference and achieve some success in their volunteering are more likely to have high morale and take initiative in their jobs—and develop more rapidly into promotabe leaders. Some companies have a real tradition of volunteering and encourate employees to get out there and give their time and expertise. Carlson Cos., the travel and entertainment conglomerate, has taken this idea to a wonderful new level for its headquarters staff by creating a Web site on which Minneapolis-area nonprofits can post their needs. Employees use the site to find causes they are excited about and get in touch with the organization of their choice. This should in turn benefit the company in the long run. If you don't have the programming resource to build something similar from scratch, there are many easier ways that might work almost as well. You could try to partner with a local umbrella organization such as a Rotary or Chamber group to create a community-wide shared Web site that does the same thing at a lower cost to you. Support the Charities Employees Work For Levi Strauss and a number of other companies have made a policy of putting some of their charitable contributions toward organizations that employees volunteer for. If you as a business leader have any discretion over donations made by the organization, consider dividing them up among charitires that employees are involved in. It shows respect for their initiative and supports a cause of importance to them. Brain Power Web Industrues lets assembly-line worlers take reading breaks and makes thought-provoking publications available for them. If you want your employees to think, this is a good way to encourage some mental calisthenics. Rediscovering the Career Ladder Kingfisher, one of Europe's leading retailers, recognized that younger employees did not share the commitment and loyalty of the senior managers, and decided that the lack of a clear career path within the company was partly responsible. To address this, the company launched what it calls The Kingfisher Management Development Scheme. This initiative included a commitment to fill 80 percent of senior management positions internally, and also a promise to new hirees with management potential that they would advanced to senior management in seven to ten years. Having made these commitments, the compay had to rethink its approach to employee development and make sure internal candidates for management received plenty of training and exposure to different aspects of the operation. Ask Talented Employees to Teach Their Crafts The interesting thing about performance is that people who are good at doing one thing are more likely to want to do other things well too. Encouraging employees to develop and share any special interests is an investment in excellence, not just in their specific area of interest but in the workplace in general. One way to encourage employee excellence and share its motivating benefits is to invite employees with special skills or interests to put on workshops for other employees. Offer Lunch Learning? Colle &McVoy, Inc., an add agency in Bloomington, Minnesota, operated a "lunch hour campus" in which brief courses are offered to employees once a week. New hires go through nine weeks of training in this format. (This is a great way to slip some continuous learning into busy schedules! An interesting variation on this ideas would be to ask employees to teach some of the lunch lectures instead of just attend them.) Leading by Offering New Perspectives Some managers make a point of bringing new ideas and perspectives to their employees. For example, the leader at tapemark, a midwestern manufacturer, invited a psychologist to give a series of seminars for factory workers called "Wholehearted Living and Leadership", which addressed quality-of-life topcs such as motivation, optimism, and thankfulness. Now that's not your average factory training session, isn't it? Book, $10.95, signed by the author, reg price $19.95  |
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