Are You Challenging Your Employees?

One of the many aspects of managing employees is to find ways to challenge each person so they are continuously doing their best. When employees are challenged they take more responsibility, are more engaged, and their productivity increases. Given all you need to do; how can you consistently challenge each person?

Here are some ideas that you can include in your 1:1 with each person:

Check in with them and find out what areas they feel challenged in their work and where do they feel they could use a little more push. Sometimes an employee finds one area of their job quite challenging and are fine with the other areas being more routine. This is where consistent communication with each person helps find a good balance for each person.
Be aware if they are actually challenged or just saying they are in one area. Ask them “what challenges you in what you are doing?”
Reach out to them for their input on decisions that you need to make. The more involved each employee is in the direction and success of a project, the more engaged they are with you and the company, as well as speak up with more ideas.
Show respect for each person’s contributions and let them know and they will challenge themselves to do better.
Set clear, concise goals for each person. There are business goals and development goals you will need to address with each person. Find ways to help with their career development and they will be loyal employees.
Encourage each person to think of better ways to handle their work. Brainstorm ideas with them or have them work with a team to come with up with creative solutions to everyday work. There are no wrong ideas, rather strong ideas in the making. Brainstorming is a great way for people to bounce off each other and come up with innovative thinking.
Employees will do the grunt work as long as they have challenges incorporated into their day. Find out what challenges them and work out a plan to either give them more responsibilities or find a position that fits with their skills, knowledge or experience.
Any time you see someone who has a potential skill, let them know you see it and figure out a way to help them embrace and own the challenge.
Don’t allow complacency even if you employees seem happy with it. Be alert to an employee who doesn’t want to change, because the productivity of a team will be drawn to the weakest link. An employee who is resistant to change or to take on more responsibilities will bring down your team.
Let them know they will fail sometimes and you ask them to figure out what they have learned from it. Don’t ever be super critical of a failure, or your team will be fearful to step out of their comfort zone. You will end up with high turnover or lower performance levels.
Praise people when they make a genuine effort to learn something, even if they haven’t yet mastered the new responsibility. Check in with them what they have learned so far and encourage them to continue to move forward. Let them know it takes time to master something new and you are there to support them through the process.