Motivating And Retaining Top Talent

“Feeling connected to the people you work with also helps create a sense of purpose…. Providing opportunities to learn and grow is icing on the cake…. Clear goals are only part of the equation. People need regular feedback so they know when they are on track and recognition when they achieve key milestones….The more people feel you are focused on them, rather than on yourself, the more they trust you.”

• Create a sense of purpose – Engagement and retention improves when people understand how they connect to the “Big Picture” and how they make a difference.
• Provide meaningful work – Allowing people to do what they do best and make a significant contribution is key to engagement and retention.
• Solicit ideas – Involvement in decisions gives people a sense of control in uncertain times, shows them their opinions matter, and improves decision acceptance.
• Let people know where they stand – Setting tough but realistic goals is motivating even in a tough environment.
• Enhance trust and communication – Trust is built when leaders improve credibility by being candid, demonstrate reliability by ensuring their actions are consistent with business objectives and values, and  are accessible.
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Employee Goals and Talent Development

A report from SumTotal® Systems Inc., a global provider of talent development solutions, argues that implementing effective, universally-accepted goal setting for employees, coupled with a system for managing and tracking these processes can enable HR managers to make a significant contribution to improved organizational performance.

“With the current economic forecast, it is now more important than ever to make sure employees’ goals reflect the organization’s overall goals to ensure everyone is working toward the same mission. By helping to set organizational alignment, HR departments have the ability to impact their company like never before and create significant productivity improvements.”

The report offers the following guidelines for the involvement of HR in employee goal setting:

1. Know the goals – HR should be involved when senior managers plan annual goals to be aware of underlying issues and challenges.
2. Get buy-in – The executive team should support HR’s efforts to align goals and help communicate the importance of the program.
3. Cascade goals – Once goals are set at the top of the organization, they should work their way down to all employees.
4. Ensure consistency – As goals are established further down the organization, HR can assist by creating standards and monitoring consistency.
5. Hold everyone accountable – Managers should ensure goals are measurable with specific deadlines and then hold employees accountable.
6. Reinforce through development – Ensure that employees have skills and tools to achieve established goals using development plans monitored by HR.
7. Work the gaps – Managers can work with employees individually. HR should identify gaps in organizational provision and address issues proactively with the Learning team.
8. Encourage year-long communication – Initial goals may be agreed but paid no further attention. Sending reminders to update goals is one way for HR to encourage a culture of frequent manager/employee communication.
9. Monitor compliance – Managers should monitor progress and completion of employee goals HR should review overall process and report to executives and department heads.
10. Measure twice, cut once – Goals should be a major component of a company’s annual performance appraisal where employees are measured and held accountable.

 

Seven Tips For Management Success

An effective manager pays attention to many facets of management, leadership and learning within organizations. So, it’s difficult to take the topic of “management success” and say that the following ten items are the most important for management success. I will, however, suggest seven management success skills without which I don’t believe you can be a successful manager.

The most important issue in management success is being a person that others want to follow. Every action you take during your career in an organization helps determine whether people will one day want to follow you.

A successful manager, one whom others want to follow:

• Builds effective and responsive interpersonal relationships. Reporting staff members, colleagues and executives respect his or her ability to demonstrate caring, collaboration, respect, trust and attentiveness.
• Communicates effectively in person, print and email. Listening and two-way feedback characterize his or her interaction with others.
• Builds the team and enables other staff to collaborate more effectively with each other. People feel they have become more – more effective, more creative, more productive – in the presence of a team builder.
• Understands the financial aspects of the business and sets goals and measures and documents staff progress and success.
• Knows how to create an environment in which people experience positive morale and recognition and employees are motivated to work hard for the success of the business.
• Leads by example and provides recognition when others do the same.
• Helps people grow and develop their skills and capabilities through education and on-the-job learning.

 

Management Styles

Management styles vary from company to company. There are many different styles of management that can bring success to an organisation but you have to make sure your management style is right for your business.

People skills are obviously a key asset in the development of effective management styles. Dealing with people is a professional skill in itself. Being able to see from the perspective of others is essential, and caring for their welfare is also of prime importance.

There are many high-profile examples of how to develop a successful management style. Managers like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have famously developed their own distinctive management style from which others can learn.

However, the fact that the two examples are very different management styles shows that there is no single route to success.

Gates’s style and management practice at Microsoft was based on control and concerning himself with detail almost to the point of obsession. The onus that the Bill Gates management style placed on the monitoring of staff and figures is demonstrated by the fact that he even used to sign expenses for Steve Ballmer, his right-hand man.

Buffett, on the other hand, always stressed a desire for the managers of Berkshire Hathaway to think like owners. He urged them to ‘look at the business you run as if it were the only asset of your family, one that must be operated for the next 50 years and can never be sold’.

Sometimes unorthodox management behavior can develop into a very effective management style. A case in point is that of Ricardo Semler and his Brazilian engineering company Semco. His management policies included unusual practices such as shutting down the company for an afternoon twice-yearly for all employees to clean out the places where they work. He also limited all memos and reports to one piece of A4, always topped by an eye-catching tabloid-style headline to sum up the key message.

Perhaps most interestingly of all, he implemented a system where employees would assess their own managers, with a low rating putting the manager’s job at risk.

All this reinforces the view that there is no one right way to manage people. While taking tips from the experts can help you find the management style that works for you, it is ultimately a matter of trial and error, trust and heresy.

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