Managing Employees

You know that your employees are critical to your ability to produce results in the business. Yet, do you know what your employees can or want to do? Human capital is the knowledge, skills and abilities of each employee. It’s time to step back and learn what each employee can bring to the table.

Most managers find it easier to focus on managing the business and feel less confident around managing employees. Yet in order to handle your business you need to maximize the strengths that each employee can offer you in reaching your goals.

Imagine it’s Monday morning and you walk into your department, look around and see only top-performing ‘star’ employees sitting at their desks.   You smile to yourself and say, “I’m so lucky to have all stars.”   You know the production in your department will be the best in the company…because you have all ‘stars.’   It will make your life so much easier.

Would all ‘stars’ be the perfect solution to managing employees and raising the productivity of your department?

Wouldn’t it be great if we only had to do what we do best?  This may not be feasible for you, as you have varied responsibilities as a manager.  What you can do is focus your energies on your strengths when managing employees.

What are you best at?  When you are managing your employees, where do you feel most comfortable in interacting?   If you focus on your strengths, you will enhance your management skills and guide the performance and well-being of your employees.  

Have you found when managing your employees that they bring different levels of self-confidence to their work?  We know that the more confidence an individual possesses the more efficient and productive they can be in meeting their goals. If you view your role in managing employees as a mutual working relationship, then you would want to be part of nourishing their confidence.

I would suggest the following important points to use as a guide in providing support and guidance in increasing your employees “confidence muscles.”

You have an employee who performs well in most of their responsibilities, yet has one area they seem to avoid or perform below par. A classic example is the sales person. Successful sales people have strong communication skills and know how to engage a prospect or client. They are highly motivated by the sale’s process. They meet their quota or exceed and you are a happy manager. You certainly don’t want to change their performance in this area.