Sometimes, it can be difficult to make employees want success as badly as you do.
As the CEO of a small company, or the manager of a small team, you’re invested in your mission. This is what keeps you going above and beyond, both inside the office, and at home, where I know you’re reading books on how to get even better. Making sure employees feel the same way is the key to
Your goals as a leader should be to make employees want success just as bad as you do. The key to doing so is providing the right incentives.
Here are a few to get you started.
1. Make sure that your employees are aware of how the growth of your company will affect them in a positive way.
As a manager, workers see you as the person on the top of the food chain who reaps rewards from their work. At times, it can be frustrating for workers to watch their gains fall into the hands of another. For this reason, you must make it clear that your gains are their gains, too.
If they help you grow, reward them. This can be something as simple as a Starbucks gift card or an afternoon off.
Take this one step further by finding out about their interests, and rewarding them with something meaningful to them
For example: At the end of the year last year, we hit a new MRR goal. Our CEO rewarded customer success representative, Cody with a new watch that he had brought up at lunch one day. Seeing this not only made me want to work harder, in small hopes of an interested reward, but it showed me how much our manager and CEO values our work.
2. Appreciate them
If your employees are doing a good job, let them know that you are taking notice and that you appreciate their hard work. At times, humans just need reinforcement that they are doing a quality job. Sometimes, all you need to do is give your hard-working workers a pat on the back or a big thumbs up so they can continue to excel and allow their productivity to soar.
Positive energy breeds positive energy.
[bctt tweet=”At times, humans just need reinforcement that they are doing a quality job.”]
3. Let them pitch ideas
Foster an environment that makes your employees feel like they can come to you anytime to offer ideas that will make the company more successful. You want your employees to offer their thoughts or suggestions because this means that they want to grow and succeed over a long period of time, just as you do. Most successful business surround themselves with people that are successful in what they do. Have faith in them, and they will have faith in you.
For example: I work in Marketing for Appfluence, and last November I asked my boss if we could try SlideShare as a promotion channel. He said yes, and gave me full responsibility of the project.
I came up with a 20-slide presentation on productivity, full of emojis. It ended up getting featured, and got shared almost 1,000 times.
4. Offer them promotions
According to Anne Fisher’s post “What Job Seekers Really Want Now” on Fortune, she mentions that “when asked why they quit their last job or may quit their current one, most employees gave ‘lack of advancement opportunities’ as the main reason.” I can guarantee you that most people want to advance in their company; they do not just want to be an assistant or have a general role forever. Make sure that they know that they have the opportunity to move up into a higher position like management; however, they will need to prove that they have what it takes. You must set goals for your employees and once they achieve them, stick with your words and be clear about where their future in the company is heading.
5. Invest in Employee Learning
Everybody has things that they are good at and things that they can improve on. Find ways to help your employees build their skills, whether its improving a weak area, building on a skill they already have, or learning something new.
Consider investing in a company membership on a site like Lynda, which offers courses on everything from Excel to Management skills. Plans start at $19.99/mo.
Employees will be excited about their new skill set, and will put them into practice in the office.
For example: Just a few months ago, our customer success rep, Natalia took an excel course and used her new skills to slice our data and analyze our user base to create customer profiles. Now we have a better idea of who to target on the marketing side.
6. Help them grow their strengths
Like I said above, everybody has things that they are especially good at whether a natural talent, work ethic, or skill. Chances are that you hired them because they stood out to you in some way, shape, or form. Take advantage of what your workers do best. Delegate tasks to them that you know they will excel at to keep their confidence high.
Take this one step further by allowing an employee to take on a project that’s above their comfort level. As they conquer this new challenge, they’ll feel confident and inspired, ready to give it their all the next time around. Try this method by Daniel Shapero of LinkedIn to get you started.
[bctt tweet=”Take advantage of what your workers do best. “]
7. Cater to their personality
Did you know that there are different ways to manage employers based on their personality — especially when it comes to managing introverts and extroverts? Understand that each member of your team is their own unique person who learns and works their own way.
8. Understand that they have lives besides their job
This could be difficult, especially if your company is your life, but you must remember that your employees have their own personal lives that take a huge priority.
Currently, there are a slew of reports that tell us employees are leaving their current workplaces for jobs that offer a more flexible work-life balance.
Make sure your employees know how important their well-being is to you. Allow them the personal time they need to develop new skills and invest time in things that matter to them, and you will see the positive effects reflected in their work.
Try to incorporate a few of these new strategies into your workplace to make your employees want success with the same intensity that you do.
Not only will your employees thrive under these growth-focused conditions, but so will your business.