5 Tips to Lead Your Employees To Greater Success

Employees are an essential part of your business and your success.  If they are not engaged and empowered in your business, you run the risk of limiting your potential with production, customers and profit. Happiness doesn’t always come from goodies and perks, it comes from understanding your employee’s lives are truly intertwined with your business.

Unhappy employees can lead to business failure due to a lack or productivity, attention to detail, turnover and even chaos from a lack of synergy between employees and departments.

Unhappy employees are unhappy for a variety of reasons, but you first you need to look within, and determine whether or not your business is a great place to work – and whether your employees are actively engaged in helping them meet their personal goals, so they can help you meet your business success goals. There are countless studies highlighting the links between strong employee morale and satisfaction and profit. So how do you make sure your employees are happy and satisfied?

Happy and satisfied are both subjective terms, but it is up to you, the business owner, or even manager, through solid leadership practices, to determine what that means to each employee, and make the effort to create a workplace that fosters personal growth, happiness and fulfillment, in addition to making great widgets, or whatever you do.

Here are some tips to foster a positive work environment and empower your employees:

Be a good leader.  You might be a good manager, but are you a good leader?  Being a good leader means you have to know how to lead people, and the process, to be sure it is all working together in harmony, and that you are inspiring your team to exceed in the process.

Spend quality time with your employees.  As a leader, it’s important for you to listen and show that you care about your employees’ work, concerns, and aspirations.  Whether it’s a casual sit down with an employee, or small group informal meetings, your employees will be more engaged and productive when they feel seen and heard. 

Empower your employees.  Employees who have a strong sense of well-being and are given a defined level of responsibility and authority, are also more likely to take on new challenges and to play a wider role in the success of your business.  When possible and with parameters, let your employees make some decisions independently of you when they are closer to the action than you are and may be more likely to know the right call to make. 

Encourage creativity.  There are always new challenges to address and better ways to do things. Encourage your employees think outside the box when it comes to dealing with common business issues.  Whether it’s suggesting an innovative process improvement or researching a new technology solution, give your employees room to creatively address everyday challenges. 

Don’t forget to show your appreciation.  Employees want to be recognized and appreciated. Take that extra few minutes to drop a handwritten note, or email, or gift card. Maybe have a special treat for employees in the afternoon one-day to thank them for a group effort. We all appreciate being thanked but taking the extra step can make a big difference in making employees feel appreciated. 

For more information on this or other leadership topics, please contact the HR experts at Infinium HR.