As a manager, your responsibilities are likely to include planning, preparing as well as an active participation in the recruitment process and the selection of candidates. Once hired, it’s also up to you to engage, inspire and motivate new recruits as well as veterans alike. Here are four verbs to help you be the manager who your new team members will want to follow the one appreciated by your current employees.
It’s a well-known fact that all employees want to be recognized. An employee who is well paid, and consequently working well aligned with his or her talents, will be more successful. Once a worker is satisfied with his or her salary, combined with a good compensation plan, as a leader you have a good basis for motivating and gaining that person’s commitment. The result is a synergistic harvest. As Maslow’s pyramid of needs illustrates, secure and valued, the employee is more likely to be motivated. With this physiological base and his need for security satisfied, he’s ready to fulfill his need for belonging, esteem and fulfillment. Fulfilled by these hierarchical necessities, the employee is ultimately ready to create, collaborate and contribute. Paying employees their market value is an excellent return on investment that will enable them to happily climb the ladder of achievement.
Evaluate your recruitment practices in relation to the compensation you offer. Salaries, benefits, vacations, community involvement: review all these criteria according to the types of profiles you’re looking for. Then, measure your proposal against the competition. If necessary, make the needed changes to attract the talent you’re looking for, including the best on the market, those who are with your competition.
While you’re on the subject of compensation, also review your working conditions in relation to work-life balance: hours, four-day weeks, telecommuting and hybrid modes, can all be up for revisions.
Seize the opportunity to innovate. Survey your employees on what they value in their working conditions. You may be surprised to discover how easy and inexpensive it is to make their dreams come true.
Training activities, development courses and personalized coaching are often at the top of the list of top performers. What’s more, some government programs offer coaching and subsidies. Do your homework.
Volunteering days and hours in your community holds exponential power, including for your company. Employees who are happy to contribute spread the word about your generosity. Employees, the company and you all benefit from this pride in helping. Mentoring programs are also popular. It’s not just mentees who appreciate the match. Mentors also mention the benefits of this esteem.
Setting expectations, educating, empowering, disciplining and rewarding: these five stages of people management are fundamental. It’s a basic cycle. Yes, you always have to start again. And beyond the process of welcoming and integrating new recruits, this wheel must be turned every time you set a new objective.
Without the continuous application of the five steps of this management principle, some perceive a lack of rigor and direction. Soon after, a climate of mistrust sets in. Favoritism and discrimination can also be discerned; nonchalance follows. Ultimately, commitment disappears.
To avoid this slackening, this lack of work ethic, look in your past year’s rear-view mirror. Review the hiring and, above all, the orientation of your new recruits. If necessary, fill the gaps in the usual unfulfilled requirements.
Using the five steps outlined above, define your vision for the year ahead. Invest all the time that you need. Make sure everyone, according to his or her role and responsibilities, knows what is expected of him or her. Share the why. Educate on the how. Equip employees so that all are equally empowered and can develop to succeed in what is expected. Don’t delay. Validate regularly with feedback, even negative feedback. Set up action plans to achieve what you set out to do. Congratulate them on the spot! Reward them and do it again. I did warn you, it’s an ongoing carousel.
But good communication doesn’t mean scientific monologues. Leaders do not communicate unidirectionally within their profession, their circle and their language. Appropriate two-way communication is essential to inspire, motivate and engage. Successful corporate communication allows for feedback, suggestions, initiative and asking for explanations.
A leader who communicates effectively is empathetic. He adapts his communications by modulating them according to the person he’s talking to, his skills and competencies, and the department or sector he’s addressing. To get this different perspective, you need to spend time with employees and get to know their reality. What do they dream of? What do they need to function well? What keeps them awake at night?
Successful communication is also concrete and coherent. Cohesive, it clearly indicates everyone’s role. Everyone understands how they can help achieve the objective. They are aware of the capabilities required of their link in the chain of achievement. With this foresight, everyone feels responsible for the company’s success. Communicating objectives also includes measurable specifics and precise deadlines, as well as determining the consequences of failing to achieve anticipated outcomes.
Admire and honor the unique talents of each one of your team members. Offer opportunities and promotions. The confidence you show with these gestures contributes to self-esteem and empowers the employee. Aware that you value them, the employees you entrust with tasks want to succeed. Responsible for your recognition, they don’t want to let you down and work to earn it.
Honors, recognition and awards are prized by professionals. These can be public or private accolades, trophies or even virtual notes in chat rooms, and can come from HR professionals or colleagues. They can be framed by nomination processes or occur spontaneously. The choice is yours. Recognize, appreciate and also encourage others to do so: within your team, towards other teams, with your customer’s superior or directly to your supplier. Sowing the seeds of recognition creates goodwill. Don’t just recognize results; compliment efforts too.
Perhaps you were already familiar with these practices? If so, you now have confirmation. Now you know you have to implement them as strategically as you implement all your other goals. Start the year off on the right foot: pay consistently, manage regularly, communicate empathetically and recognize respectfully. Before you know it, you’ll have an inspired, motivated and committed team. As a bonus, you and your team will both be happier at work, in the workplace or at home. After reading this, inspiring, engaging and motivating may seem simple. I’ll give you that. The act of inspiring, engaging and motivating is primitive. To inspire, engage and motivate is to humanize the work required of every employee. Your most precious resource is not your products, but your people. Treat these human beings as you would like to be treated: humanely.
Are you in a sticky situation? This blog is at your service. Write to me at julieblaiscomeau.com. Your situation may enlighten other readers.
Translated from a published article February 2021 in La référence de l’Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines du Québec (c) Julie Blais Comeau
+613.292.9526
julie@julieblaiscomeau.com
I’m Julie Blais Comeau, Canada’s bilingual etiquette specialist. My mission is simple: to give you the know-how to shine positively at work and in the community.
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