Managers, Do This and Keep Your Best People

All good managers are concerned about employee retention. But you don’t just want to keep your people; you want them to be enthusiastic, optimistic, and engaged every day when they come to work. How can you create that kind of environment? Work on developing these traits in yourself as a manager.

Encourage productive work hours, not extra work hours. There is nothing inherently wonderful or laudable about working too much. If you create an environment in which your team can get more done in less time, all of you will feel better about being at work.

Create opportunities to succeed and then reward that success. When your people do well, let them know you notice. Don’t be that manager who is always pointing out the negative but rarely noticing the good work your people are putting in. As a manager, you have the opportunity to develop individual and team win opportunities. When they come through, celebrate with them.

Learn who your people are outside of what’s written in their personnel file. No one is who they are on paper. Each one of your employees or team members has individual hopes, aspirations, dreams, and goals. Each one is motivated and demotivated by very specific things. The more you know about them, the better you can put them in a position to not only be successful but to enjoy the journey.

Keep your word. Try not to make promises, especially when some of the circumstances are not within your ability to manage. But, when you do, keep those promises. Building trust is one of the most important things you can do as a manager. Your people need to know they can trust your word and your judgment. If they’re not sure, that doubt will influence every aspect of your operation.

Hire the right people, not just people who can do the job. Situations change. You want good people, not just people who are good at a job. There’s a difference. Ask anyone who has ever hired someone who is good at a job but not the right fit for the team.

Build skills development into your employee protocol. Give all your people opportunities, not just to succeed but also to become better versions of themselves. Right now, they might be good enough to get the job done, but if you want your operation to grow, your people need to have the capacity to grow with it. If they’re all at their limit, growth could do more harm than good, so make sure they are always in the process of personal and professional development.

So, what do you think? How are you actively engaged in promoting the enthusiastic engagement of your best people?