Once you recruit and hire a new member of the team, you are responsible for helping them to succeed. Yes, they must do what do it takes to be positive and productive employees but it’s a partnership. Through the recruitment and personnel process, you learned both their specific strengths and areas for improvement and growth. Now, you must take ownership enabling them to develop, grow, and optimize their contributions to the mission, goals, and objectives of the organization (Maxwell, 1998).
You must have a culture of mentoring. Leaders must make people development their top priority (Maxwell, 1998). No one should be left to figure it out and fend for himself or herself. You have hired character and now it’s time to enhance knowledge and sharpen skills. You will invest plenty of time in their growth.
This is a relationship not a single conversation or two. Those you lead need and want a strong, positive, and trusting relationship with you. You need to get to know and understand each employee. Why did they join the organization? What are their personal goals? What are their hopes and fears? You help them chart a personal career path. You align personal and organizational goals (Abrashoff, 2002).
You provide all the tools, resources, and experiences they need to grow and thrive. You monitor, manage, coach, reward, recognize, supply support, and remove obstacles. You provide real-time actionable feedback about how they can retain strengths and make improvements. You will track their progress (Welch).
You must live and communicate the values required for their success. You are the example, the model, and the message. You give employees the freedom to succeed and fail, learn, and grow. You sustain motivation for the mission.
They should have multiple mentors coaching them. It’s a culture.
You want to make them stay. Retention of good employees improves performance, productivity, team, morale, culture, and customer satisfaction. Employers must stay competitive on pay and benefits but really, it is leadership, culture, mission, and team which attracts and repels. Talented individuals of integrity want a mission and leadership in which and whom they can believe in a healthy and positive work culture as members of a true team (Collins, 2001).
Make them feel valued and trusted. Enable them to give you their best and feel the impact of their contributions (Abrashoff, 2002). Ensure a work environment in which people thrive.
Continuously and successfully communicate. Talk and help employees through challenges and changes (Abrashoff, 2002) and let them know where they stand (Welch). This reduces anxiety and stress and enhances performance and productivity.
Let them grow. Make work meaningful and challenging (Spreitzer & Porath, 2012). Identify and decrease demotivators and increase motivators. Change with the talent market in terms of your policies, benefits, etc. Treat people well and adhere to the Golden Rule (Maxwell, 1998).
Let everyone see the big picture. Keep them informed and invested. You want them to think and act like owners not renters, tourists, or bystanders. You want them to think and act like long term not short-term employees (Spreitzer & Porath, 2012).
Be consistent and don’t play favorites. If you say it, then do it (Abrashoff, 2002). People want and perform best with clarity, consistency, stability, and predictability (Lencioni, 2017). Praise in public and coach in private. Celebrate successes even smaller ones (Welch) and keep people healthy (Spreitzer & Porath, 2012). Do all this and you will be the employer for whom the best want to work and stay.
From the Teacher: Leadership Lessons with Dr. Saviak is a weekly column with the esteemed Joseph C. Saviak, Ph.D., J.D., M.A., M.S., Management Consulting & Leadership Training
From the Teacher: Leadership Lessons with Dr. Saviak is a weekly column with the esteemed Joseph C. Saviak, Ph.D., J.D., M.A., M.S., Management Consulting & Leadership Training
