How to Fire Up! your Employees
To FIRE UP! your employees think “connection”:
1. They must connect to their work – this means that they must think (brain connection) in the way their job needs them to think; this refers to talents.
2. They must connect to their manager – this means that they must have a relationship (people connection) with their manager to inspire them to do their best.
The way to build these connections is through the following steps. Remember – you are changing the way you manage to accommodate the thinking and feeling workplace found in today’s intellectual economy. Today you must inspire and engage….and here is how:
1. Create an employee-focused workplace culture – see our listing of the 10 components of a powerful culture that attracts and retains the best employees. Be sure you have as many of these components as you can.
2. Hire and promote only based on talents. Talents manifest themselves in each employee and the closer the employee’s work is matched to their natural thinking or talents, the more they connect to their work and therefore perform. Start by buying a copy of Tom Rath’s “Strengthsfinder 2.0″ to define talents by employees; his book includes a code and website address to complete a survey to determine your 5 top talents. It also introduces the full list of 34 talents and helps to get you speaking the language of talents. Then use our powerful talent-based questions to interview well. Click here to order StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths
3. Set performance expectations – once the right employee is hired, define the expectations of the role but allow the employee to create the action plan to achieve the expectations. This is how you personalize and define each role and help each employee own his or her performance. See our Performance Expectations Worksheet for help.
4. Now that the right employee is hired and knows what is expected, build a strong personal connection with each employee though recurring performance feedback. Act as a coach and educator as you encourage employees to continually improve their skills to be able to achieve their expectations. The more contact you have with the employee in a positive and supportive way, the stronger the personal connection. Use our Performance Feedback Worksheets to get better at feedback.
5. Host recurring “Career Conversations” – discussions about employees’ future. This gives employees a voice in their development, insures that future roles match their talents and builds a stronger bond between the manager and the employee. See our “Career Conversation” worksheets.
These are the critical five steps presented in our powerful Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition! program. There is one more component that you need to do on a regular basis:
6. Build a fun and high energy workplace. Get the job done but have a great time in the process. Getting employees FIRE UP! is about activating their emotions. All employees work better, smarter and more creatively when they love what they do, they have fun and they feel important. Do something each day to celebrate your employees. The more you do for them, the more they do for you.
Humanetrics works with managers who want to activate and inspire employees to exceptional performance. Contact us to lead a half day, full day or two day FIRE UP! program for your organization. Performance will change…guaranteed!