Business Management Life

Many times as managers we are tasked with so many objectives that we might lose focus on those we are asking to complete the objectives.

And because we are a results driven society, its hard sometimes to let go and allow our personnel to do what they were hired for.

Here are 7 ways you can Empower and Energize your department.

1. Allow your employees to fail forward. Some things do not go as planned. It happens. I read a story where an executive made a mistake that cost the company a 6 figure loss. The next day he was packing his desk up, when in walked the owner of the company. The executive told the owner he would not make any trouble and would be out of the office as quick as he could. The owner then told him Look, do you think I am letting you go after we just spent all that money training you? That is a great example of failing forward. Take time to debrief and ask for input on how things will look from here on out.

2. Do not handle issues and tasks that they were hired to do. Its ok to address the out of the ordinary stuff. Like what to do if you have a gorilla eating bananas sitting at your desk when you come in. Recognize that your staff is intelligent and capable far more than you realize. And 99% of the time, they will come up with the right answer if you follow number 3.

3. Train, train, train. Training is a process, not an event. It never stops. When you stop training, people start to stagnate and smell, like a pond of water that has not been flushed by a fresh rain. People need exposure to new ideas and reinforcement of standard practices. The old saying Knowledge is power should be Applied Knowledge Over A Period Of Time Is Power.

4. Have your personnel set up and run a training program, with in house training delivered by employees on their positions, new procedures, policies, best practices and outside competition. By asking them to train each other, you demonstrate your confidence in them. They will focus on things that matter in their job. One note. If you are just beginning to set this up, you will find resistance, as with everything new. Take it slowly. Maybe introduce the concept, suggest a few subjects, attend all training and moderate as needed. Once they get the idea, back off and let it run. Just make sure to participate in the background.

5. Assign the staff to be Work Mentors for new hires. Have them run all the indoctrination and familiarization. The people you have know their job, and know how to do it properly. If they dont, why do you have them? They will also feel responsible for the performance. You might consider rewarding those Work Mentors by tracking performance of new hires and when they start to do well recognize them in public for their accomplishments. If you are looking for ways to reward, might I suggest reading 1001 Ways To Reward Employees by Bob Nelson.

6. Give them a budget to handle stuff. You know, stuff. The Aw Shucks moments. Tell them it is for them to use at their discretion. Reward them for using it to handle those moments. One case study I read told the story of a businessman who left behind a laptop at a hotel. On his laptop was his presentation for the next day. He called back to the hotel and told his story, without much hope of getting his computer in time for his next day presentation. A hotel employee booked a flight that day, flew to the clients location and hand delivered the laptop. Upon return, the manager gathered all of the staff together and publicly congratulated the employee for doing the right thing. Taking care of the customer. That is Empowerment in Action!

7. And last, I have already said it several times and you can probably guess it. Reward Often and Publicly whenever you can. People respond to positive energy. Handing out earned Rewards distributes that energy. It becomes synergistic and perpetual. Practice RAK moments as well. Random Acts of Kindness. Do something for someone for no reason. Sometimes a small gesture will go a long way. People remember two things. When someone has been kind to them and when someone has mistreated them. Be the kind person.

One other note. Be Consistent. The worst thing you can do is manage in fits and bursts. People will not know what to expect and whenever you start to roll something new out, they will consider just another flavor of the day.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Leadership, Management, Hiring, Ideas, Tips, Blog Carnival. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.