1. Stop weighing your people down with meetings and emails.
Most of us spend too much time in meetings. Your team members are so used to it that they joke about and roll their eyes as they head back to their desks. Time-wasting meetings are the collective joke of our times. Don’t let that be your workplace! The same goes for emails. Be prudent with your communications. When you receive an email update from team members, consider weather it actually requires your input on every point –or any point! Maybe you can just send a quick acknowledgement of receipt and mention your two or three thoughts about the contents when you see them in person.
2. Give your employees the power to take ownership –and accountability.
It’s common knowledge that getting buy-in from staff will increase engagement and ultimately, effectiveness. But the bonus of giving decision making power to your team members also means that you will have increased accountability.
3. Provide clear expectations and consistent feedback.
Have you ever kicked off a project, divided the roles, the work, and set goals, only to find that you had missed the mark? It’s never too late! Call the team back and clarify your expectations before the project gets any further off track. The practice of giving consistent feedback goes both ways. Your consistent feedback is valuable to your employees and, in turn, their feedback to you is equally valuable. Encourage this feedback loop, to ensure that your expectations are clear and they haven’t –in the words of Stephen Covey– “put their ladder against the wrong building.”
4. Stop scrimping on employee development!
The recent economic conditions have pushed companies to try to do more with less, and budgets for training and development took a major hit. And what happened to many of those slimmed down budgets once the economy started to bounce back? Nothing, unfortunately. Many training and programs that were abandoned five years ago have not been reinstated, leaving people directionless in their career plans –and therefore restless and unsatisfied. It’s time to implement employee and development plans that give your employees a reason to engage in their daily work and stay with your organization.
At EDSI, we have been resolving employee development, leadership, generational, professional presence, and personal effectiveness issues for over 30 years.
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