(Guest post by Steve Brown)
Empowering employees is tough, especially if you’re the kind of leader who isn’t a born motivator. Business owners, CEOs, managers and employees can’t expect their subordinates to do their jobs properly when they’re not feeling engaged.
Engagement at the workplace is deeply connected to motivation. Are your people motivated to help your business thrive? Because if they’re not, you will fail sooner or later.
Here are some steps for leaders to consider in order to persuade employees to give their best.
Roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined
When employees can’t fully understand what they have to do, they can’t perform their jobs correctly. They must know their limitations in order to avoid inefficiency through redundancy and not step on other people’s toes.
As a leader, it’s up to you to establish roles and responsibilities; thus, your people will know exactly what to do and what not to do. It will be much easier for them to work together with peers, too.
Self-improvement should be rewarded
Many company owners complain that their employees are not doing their best at the workplace. The easiest and most common response amongst managers is to offer better financial incentives. But is money enough to keep employees engaged?
Most entrepreneurs are incredibly acquainted with self-improvement; they often assume that people think the same way. Surprisingly, they don’t; Moreover, not all employees want more money.
Leaders should care for their people. Although money matters, there are other things that are just as important like development opportunities, weekly seminars to promote growth, practical trainings, better working conditions, vacation time, and so on. It’s important for entrepreneurs to make employees feel grateful.
When your people feel comfortable and they like what they do, they’re more enthusiastic and happier with their jobs.
Failure should be encouraged
As weird as this may sound, employees must not be afraid to fail. More often than not, employees are anxious to speak up or take risks because if they fail their bosses will get upset.
Why should leaders appear intimidating in front of their people? Nobody will ever have the courage to contribute with excellent ideas if they’re afraid to speak. As a leader, it’s important to encourage failure.
Allow your employees to make mistakes because mistakes are needed to attain success. It’s vital for your people to learn what NOT to do, in order to understand what TO do.
Employees should be given the opportunity to try new things, as long as their decisions don’t put the company at risk. Set up laboratory environments for your people to test ideas and learn from their mistakes.
This will boost their self-esteem and they won’t be scared of sharing ideas with their boss.
Teach your employees, don’t just lecture them
Leaders should be great teachers for their people, not just lecturers. Employees are tired of hearing their bosses tell them what to do on a commanding voice, 8 hours a day. They want to learn relevant things and share their ideas with others. Unfortunately, they can’t find inspiration in leaders who inflict fear.
Stop exhausting your employees with buzz-words and remember that people can master the art of execution. Allow them to do their jobs by giving them the right tools; provide support and help them understand their duties because that’s the only way to engage them.
When given the chance to learn and grow professionally, people feel inspired. They want to learn new things but they shouldn’t have to put up with the bossy attitude of their leader. Stop lecturing your employees and start teaching them great things!
Success matters, but significance matters more
It’s important to help your employees attain success; however, that’s not stirring enough as people have greater expectations from their leaders. On your next employee performance review, think of evaluating performance in two ways: significance and success.
You’ll realize that although employees want success and professional accomplishments, they also want to feel that what they’ve done had impact. In this case, they want to feel they did something significant, for themselves, for their leaders and ultimately, for their companies.
Do you have what it takes to boost employee engagement and motivate your people? Because if you don’t, maybe it’s time to change your leadership strategies. Think in the best interest of your employees and they won’t hesitate to bring your business to new heights.
Author Bio: Steve Brown is a regular contributor at many sites and mainly focuses on business related topics. His articles are published by many high ranking sites. Connect with him on Twitter and Google+.
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