Allowing your staff to perform their best work is essential if you hope to maximize your potential output. This doesn’t mean forcing them to hit quotas that are too challenging, or trying to motivate them through meaningless passages from the latest self-help guru you’re interested in. After all, sugar is much better for motivation than a stick. To extend the horse metaphor, a horse cannot run or perform in a show if the horseshoes are incorrectly applied, or you haven’t the right saddle. This means that the largest part of allowing your staff to succeed is simply allowing them to. You should provide them with the tools to do so.
There are a few ways to do this, but the following is absolutely the most effective:
Social cohesion
Staff work better when they can communicate with one another. They are more willing to respond to criticism, self-regulate their behaviour, and talk each other through problems if they are simply allowed to. This means that allowing any staff member to consult with any other through a repository and index of all emails and working phone numbers should be available to all staff. It means while they should have their own space, the office should be set up in a way that allows people to talk to one another without worrying about you watching over them.
After all, a lack of work will show in their overall results and not how they seemingly behave. This also means allowing smartphones and calls to be had, as you never know what is going to be useful for them. Verifying their work efforts is as simple as asking them what they’re working on, or simply seeing if certain projects are taken care of in time. If this doesn’t take place, it will be apparent very quickly. That means you can allow your staff the time to socially integrate, to communicate, and to better each other without introducing your hand.
Toolset
It’s very important for staff to have the right potential for work. This means allowing them to use equipment that you invest in substantially. If you’re able to give them excellent industry-leading tools for doing so, they are much more likely to keep job satisfaction. Many of us have worked jobs in which we are not outfitted with the right tools and equipment, making our jobs harder and filling us with resentment when we are asked why certain things have not been completed.
This means stocking your business from the bottom to the top. Ensuring you have a strong arrangement with an office supply store can be the best way to go here, as can developing internal structures for IT development and continued implementation of the best software packages for the business as a whole. It also means allowing yourself to be open to hiring or directly purchasing specialist equipment if it will help. This means hiring outsourced specialists to help come and identify your operation and see where the toolset weak spots are.
It might be that you’re using outdated accounting software, are expecting staff to use outdated VoIP packages, or are simply neglecting to invest in something worthwhile, such as off-brand editing packages instead of the leading formats. Staff are only as good as you let them be, meaning that equipping them infinitely can often lead to infinite upward growth.
Creativity
Even the most numbers led business requires a spark of creativity from time to time. There’s a reason that high-end silicon valley firms ensure that creativity is one of the grounding points of the entire enterprise. For example, those in Google are often allowed to work sat in ball pits, playing strange music, or working while indulging in the dessert catering there. While you might not want to install fire poles to allow workers to jump to the previous floor, it can be very useful to ensure that creativity is one of the driving forces of your business, to respect it and generally work towards this being an aim you keep.
Staff respond to this well. It might be that you implement quiet and reflective zones for employees to work in, or you simply allow people to contribute their ideas. It could be you play very quiet and relaxing music throughout your office to get staff in a pensive mood, or that you simply reward those with the most innovative ideas.
With these tips, you will find that staff often perform their best work, and are motivated to continually provide their best selves in everything they achieve.
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