Every employer wants to run a successful business. One of the most important keys to this is to ensure that employees are working effectively, and high quality leadership will go a long way towards promoting this. There is a wealth of advice about how to be a successful leader, but there are some key principles which can be distilled from the plethora of suggestions.

Recruiting and Deploying your Employees
It may seem obvious, but the first key is to recruit the best candidates for the job. This means that a careful recruitment process is an essential element of getting the best from your employees. Jim Collins, a renowned leadership expert, refers to this as ‘getting the right people on the bus….and the right people in the right seats’. In other words, you should only recruit candidates to a post if you have complete confidence in their ability to carry out the role. For existing employees this could mean implementing a change in role, enabling them to operate more effectively within the company.

Equipping your Employees 

Once you have employed the best people for the job, the next step is to ensure they are fully equipped to carry out their role. Induction training is very important as it will contribute to employees feeling confident from the outset in their own ability to perform. Ongoing training, especially if new projects or roles are taken on, will continue to support their self-confidence. It is only possible to get the best from an employee if they feel able to do their job well. People will usually rise to a challenge, but failure to achieve, especially if it happens because of a lack of support and equipping, can result in demoralisation.

Harnessing your Employees

Most employees are keen to work hard and do well in their role, but in order for them to do this well they need to have a sense of purpose and to feel that they are valued. Whilst it may seem that offering a target-based reward with an incentive on completion (e.g. a pay rise or holiday) may be a good way to achieve this, and indeed on the short term may be affective, in the long-term this may backfire as the employee has no intrinsic motivation to help the company to succeed. Time spent communicating the vision for the company, and preferably enabling the employee to contribute to it, will pay rich dividends in terms of this intrinsic motivation. The synergy created by team working and a shared sense of responsibility will far outweigh any gains from monetary incentives. Employees need to feel valued and will appreciate being seen as equal partners.

Motivating your Employees

In addition to ensuring employees are given effective incentives, another powerful tool in getting the best from them is that of personal role modelling. As an employer, an example of high expectations and integrity is likely to produce greater motivation from your employees. Integrity should be demonstrated from the senior leadership, and an employer who takes responsibility and does not try to blame others when things go wrong will be much respected and will inspire employees to take responsibility for their actions. Additionally, an inspiring employer will always look to credit employees with any success, again reinforcing a sense of value.

Retaining your Employees
Finally, a good leader looks to build the sustainability of their organisation by ‘training up’ their employees to take on increasing levels of responsibility. If employees are equipped to carry out their role, feel self-confident and valued and feel able to make a meaningful contribution to the ongoing development of the company, they should eventually be well-placed to take on a leadership role themselves. This should result in all employees giving of their best to secure the future success of the organisation.

 

About the Author: Hi I’m Ed, and I work in the exciting, fast paced and ever-changing world of a B2B services. I’ll be trying my best to keep you abreast give you a wide smorgasbord of handy hints, tips and advice to get the squeeze the best out of your business.