Apply these seven simple suggestions to nurture your team and you’ll end up with the best team in town!
Quite often when I’m out stumping the speaking circuit a boss with a problem corners me. The problem – “How can I keep my good staff?” and they want an instant solution.
The story is always much the same. They have a terrific team, but they keep losing team members.
In working with teams from many types of businesses, I’ve found that if there are some common elements in place it makes it much easier to retain top performing people. They are:
- Communication High on the list of complaints of team members in virtually every company I’ve worked with has always been “lack of communication”. Most bosses think they communicate well with their staff but that’s not the way the team sees it. Sometimes the only information they get is what they find out on the notorious “grapevine”. Sit down with them on a regular basis and ensure that they know what you know and that they have the opportunity to get answers to their questions.
- Training A perennial complaint is that there’s no point in training people and losing them. Sure, but there’s one thing worse…not training people and keeping them! Frankly, I’m amazed at how few bosses ensure their people are provided with the skills training that they need to perform their job better. This is especially true in areas where team members have acquired their skills “on-the-job” by watching what other team members do. When they get to the level of proficiency of their colleagues, they see the only course open to them that will change their results is to change their employer. It is far better for you to skills train existing staff. By training them you will retain staff.
- Team meetings Great team meetings are one of the most important contributors to a stable, contented and productive team. They need be of no more than one hour’s duration and should always start on time. The objective is to motivate, educate, inform and recognise and to do it in such a way that team members want to be there.
- Recognition A good team leader will look for opportunities to acknowledge the achievements of all performers publicly amongst their peers. The team meeting affords a great opportunity to do this. Private recognition is also very powerful! This can be as simple as sending a personal letter home to a team member just to let them know that they’ve done a great job.
- Authority and responsibility One of the gripes I constantly hear from bosses is that their team members left to take a job with higher responsibility but “if they’d only just waited they would have had the same opportunity here.” Don’t make your team members leave to get authority and responsibility: give it to them soon rather than later.
- Reward Your team members want to feel that their efforts are valued and that they are earning rewards in line with the market. If you’re going to have your team perform, pay them the income they reckon they’re worth and then manage them so they earn it. Over pay your people and establish an environment in which they can over perform.
- Interesting job In the poll of what people look for in their work this was their most important demand. People want a job that has variety and interest. Maybe they see that they are just doing the same old thing day after day with no relief from the relentless grind. Give them an occasional challenge, a nutty problem or an interesting project to get their teeth into that will add variety, flavor and spice to their routine activities. A little bit of curry in a bland diet works miracles.
Guest Author:
Winston Marsh. Ideas are just one of the weapons in Winston Marsh’s incredible business building holsters. You can harness the power of his fantastic ideas at your next conference to fire up your business, people and your profits.
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