Whether you are a supervisor or a CEO, your position is superior to some level of employee within a given organization. How do you get the best out of your employees while managing your day-to-day tasks? Will it take the addition of a task to your “to do list?”
If you are able to enshrine practical working techniques into the organizational culture, facilitating a good working environment can be easier than you think!
Whether you are new to the job or you have been there for years, it is never too late or early to start the transformation process of the organizational culture, especially because of your position of authority.
(1) Creating and maintaining transparent communication!
It is essential to ensure that employees entirely align with the mission, aims and goals of the company. The only way to accurately gauge this is to provide a source of bottom-up communication; this can come in the form of frequent meetings, if organizational structure can facilitate it, or employee surveys.
Ensuring your employees remain engaged rather than participating is important. Try not to engage your employees and then disregard the information garnered. Allow them to share their views and perspectives and make changes where possible which reflect that their views were heard! Respect can be garnered through open communication. Mutual respect among all employees and throughout the organization helps to build a strong organizational culture and team spirit, something all workplaces need!
(2) Be fair!
As a manager you may often have to handle disciplinary issues or workplace conflict. The key to efficiently handling any such situation is ensuring you are fair to all parties involved. Being consistent helps to build trust! This also stands true for acknowledging good work. Rewards do not have to be monetary in nature; sometimes, simple verbal recognition can motivate an employee. Employees appreciate fair treatment, and managers exercising such behaviour will often garner and maintain the respect of their employees while bringing the best out of them!
(3) Encourage autonomy
Giving your employees as much freedom and flexibility as practically possible to perform their duties can often work as a motivational tool. Micro-managing often results in employees’ feeling undervalued and does not encourage them to fulfil sometimes hidden potential. As a manager, however, you must be familiar with your employees for this technique to work.
4) Be a role model/mentor
Having a managerial position brings with it the task of ensuring you are exhibiting the behaviours you are demanding! You have the potential to set the standard you wish to see in your staff. You can put the mentoring role into practice by bringing employees to meetings or delegating unfamiliar tasks, all in an attempt to foster exposure. In practising the foregoing techniques, being a good leader, role model and mentor will become second nature!
Remember, as much as you want to recruit and retain high-quality employees, high-calibre candidates desire good working environments. Creating a desirable work culture has the propensity to heighten your organizations’ image within the market; you can be the first step to making your company the organization where good employees want to be employed.
• Brittany Brathwaite is a research assistant.
