Successful businesses need a highly skilled and motivated staff to compete in today’s marketplace. To achieve excellence in your industry, whether you provide a service or a product, people are your most precious resource.
Employees can be developed to excellence. It starts with education and training to meet or exceed company standards. Once trained, people can be given responsibility and inspired to commit to achieving the company goals.
Great leaders know people are their finest assets. Loyal, trustworthy and imaginative people who are respected and treated with dignity by their managers can thrive in an environment where they have what they need to succeed and are empowered to do so.
Empowerment
What does that mean? The definition of empowerment is two-fold. It means to enable by giving them the training and tools necessary to do the job and then to permit by giving employees the authority to make decisions and the means to carry out those decisions.
Empowerment starts with education. Successful businesses need a highly skilled staff to keep them competitive in today’s market. Invest in comprehensive training for the specific tasks assigned as well as continual workplace education to keep employees skills sharp.
Consider training your employees yourself instead of hiring an outside firm. There are many reasons for this. First, it is a great opportunity for you to share your vision for the company and share your strategy for success. Second, your people will know exactly what is expected from them. Establishing clear guidelines and standards of performance will lead to better job performance and better employee reviews.
Third, employees want your guidance and feedback to know they are doing what is expected of them and that they are doing it well. You set the tone. Articulate your expectations in order to move your people into the future. Also, they will feel you care about them and not just about the work they do for you.
Give them positive instructions to demonstrate you are in the game with them. Do you want to know the secret that propels them to excellence? Empower them with the feeling you respect them as people as well as employees.
Encourage the people who have achieved a very high level of competence in such areas as finance, sales, social media, and negotiation to share their skills with others. They need to be acknowledged for their strengths. Treat these instructors as elite employees that others may emulate. Your other employee’s behavior will reflect theirs.
Inspire people to better themselves. People should be encouraged to pursue work related educational opportunities. No matter what your business is, constant advances in technology have created the need for continuous education in this area.
Emerging knowledge, changing trends, cutting edge business theories regarding logistics and improving efficiencies of scale are other areas where you need to supply a steady stream of information to your people. Providing training to maintain a highly skilled staff is an excellent way to help you retain the best employees and keep your staff motivated.
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Lori I agree 100%. Success starts at the street level. Your people are the front line. Great Post. I preach this to anyone and everyone.