We know that people don’t leave bad companies; they leave their manager or current situation. So as the team leader, you have the power to engage and retain staff.
The members of your team can be your greatest promoters when they believe that you are working to make them more successful, however, a recent Right Management survey revealed that 84% of your employees want to divorce you. As a team leader or business owner, you can’t afford to neglect your greatest asset- your employees!
How do you show them you actually care? How do you entice them to remain with your company? Happy Thoughts!
Happy Thought #1- Recognize Family and Situations.
Employees love their families and want nothing more than to spend time with them, but the contrast between work time and free time is quickly vanishing. More and more, corporate culture only rewards those employees who are available 24/7. As a leader, you need to acknowledge this trend, but you’ll earn your employees’ loyalty if you try to understand their family situations. When appropriate, involve family members in your team’s activities. It’s equally important to avoid exploiting the team members who are single and/or don’t have kids. They may have fewer family activities on their calendars, but this doesn’t make it OK to tap their time off. Before you send a text to a team member after hours or ask them to work overtime, make sure it’s really necessary to interrupt their personal lives.
Happy Thought #2- Recognize the Issues They Have and Fix Them.
We all tolerate things from time to time, you know, those things we put up with even though they drain our energy? Often our tolerances are specific, affecting us individually and making us feel as if our personal values are being violated. In organizations, some tolerances are universally experienced by the majority of team members. It could be the cumbersome travel-booking system or the challenge in finding a conference room. As a leader, know what your team’s most irksome issues are and do what you can to eliminate or diminish them – or at least let your team know you are working on them.
Happy Thought #3- Make Team Meetings Fun.
Do people look forward to team meetings, or do their stomachs turn when they see “team meeting” in their calendar? Workplace fun is a significant factor in job satisfaction. If “fun” sounds frivolous then think of the bottom line: losing your talent is expensive! Get creative to make your meetings the ones people look forward to. Example- Find a funny video on YouTube to start meetings with- the team members might like it so much, they will never show up late.
You can also use this time to get to know your employees and help them get them to know themselves and each other. Learn about another persons’ strengths or personality styles. By making it personal, you’ll strengthen connections at all levels.
Happy Thought #4- Turn Evaluation Time into Appreciation Awareness.
During evaluation time employees become frustrated and overwhelmed. Instead of treating the process as tedious busy work try treating the evaluation as an opportunity to acknowledge, support, and strengthen an employee’s skills, Try to do everything you can to prevent them but if you can’t, do everything you can to make them more pleasant—to yourself as well as the employee! Turn them into quarterly systems with easy reporting templates. Use them to celebrate the employee’s accomplishments and talents.
Make it known to the members of your team that praise, acknowledgment, and appreciation have no upper limit. Build a culture of appreciation and be the role model by publicly acknowledging great work and accomplishments. Expressing gratitude is powerful for the giver and recipient. Ensure it’s authentic – your people can see through false praise.
Take every opportunity to publicize the value created by your team members. Make their achievements visible internally and externally. If someone has posted an article on the web, share it with the members of your network. If they did something to mentor or coach a colleague, make sure the leaders in HR know. If they volunteered to solve a problem in another part of the company although it was not a part of their job, make it public. Don’t try to take the credit for these achievements. If you let your stars shine, you and your team will create a constellation that upper-management can’t ignore.
Happy Thought #5- Get Feedback and Incorporate It.
The best performance evaluations cover 360 degrees. Create frequent, easy and regular opportunities to get the feedback of your employees. Then let them know what you learned from the feedback and how you are going to use it. Incorporate feedback into meetings and have a feedback wall where employees can share their thoughts publicly. Don’t get defensive, and don’t forget to look for positive feedback too: it’s important to know what’s working.
Keeping your employees happy by turning your boring company into an inspiring workplace that most people yearn for is a unique task, and it rarely exists. Your employees will boast about how wonderful you are and how great the company is.
