(By Dan Simmons)
Maximizing your resources and reaching your peak potential as a team is the goal of any good manager, and while many companies have been attempting to do more with less over the past couple of years . . . is that the best approach to achieve that goal?
Not if you’re not handling the team that you have in the correct fashion.
It doesn’t matter how much talent is on your team, if you’re not handling that talent correctly, then you’re not reaching your peak (no matter how much you’d like to think that you are).
- Communicate, communicate, communicate—This can’t be overemphasized, as you might have guessed. Clear communication is essential to the success of any team, and that communication must exist on a daily basis. If you strive to over-communicate, then you’re probably communicating just enough.
- Set concrete expectations—Confusion will only bog the members of your team down. They need to know what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, why they’re doing it, and everything in between.
- Give team members a measure of control over what they do—Simply put, micro-managing stifles innovation. However, by giving employees a sense of freedom and the ability to exercise some control over what they do, you might be surprised by the quantity (and quality) of the ideas that result. Besides, if you don’t trust them, maybe you should replace them.
- Encourage feedback and input—Employees want to know that it’s safe for them to voice their opinion. Such an atmosphere is conducive to the exchange of ideas, and the creation and implementation of quality ideas is a great way to reach your peak potential.
- Make training readily available—If your team members want to better themselves, then by all means, don’t stand in their way. Give them what they want . . . and what you want, too.
- Improve your onboarding process—How quickly do new employees get up to speed? How quickly could they get up to speed, with some strategic changes in your onboarding process? The faster they’re contributing, the faster they’re contributing.
How well would you grade yourself on the points outlined above? In which areas do you believe you—and your team—can improve? The answers to these questions are the first step toward making sure that you reach your peak.
Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.
Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.
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