It is critical for your staff to feel you connect with them on more than a professional level, and before I get you concerned about what’s appropriate, let me explain. Every good manager knows employees want to feel valued. Many management courses teach the importance of ‘knowing you staff’. What’s important to your people? What motivates them outside the workplace? Is it a desire to their children get into a good college? To finish a marathon? To win the apple pie contest the county fair? What excites and motivates your people?
This is the perfect time of year to find this out. To ask your staff about their goals for 2008 in their own lives. What do they hope to achieve? To accomplish? Take this knowledge and let it help you to be a better manager. Let your staff you know you care about them not only as employees but as people. Find a way to help them achieve these goals. A book on training? Your mom’s secret ingredient? A reference letter to your Alma matter? What can you do to show your staff you care about the things that matter to them?
Filed under: Business, Feedback, Inspiration, Know Your People, Management Lesson, Management Training, Motivation, Resolutions, Setting Goals
