The beginning of a New Year is the perfect time for any business to re-focus its workforce and motivate its employees in the most effective way possible. So, you’ve hired the right people for your business; it’s now time to push them to be their best.
It’s important for leaders to guide their employees so they can ultimately mature within new and expansive roles and stick around. A more valued and challenged workforce will be a more effective workforce.
The bottom line is if you put your employees first and create new opportunities for them, you’ll be able to hit the ground running and make the new year your most successful one yet!
Here are six tips for a more effective workforce in the new year.
1. Make Your Goals and Expectations Clear
By determining clear goals and expectations early on in the new year, your workforce will have all the tools to achieve success over the next 12 months.
With everyone on the same page from day one, it will be easier to keep morale up. Don’t forget to check in and regularly remind staff of expectations. However, be careful not to micro-manage. Simply keep end goals in mind and remind employees of what success looks like.
Motivation is key. It’s up to you to find out what works for your team and implement it.
2. Share the Burden and Involve Others
Sharing responsibility and involving employees in decision-making processes is a good way to boost morale within your team.
This kind of collaborative work builds up a kind of invaluable trust within your company. If you show your employees you trust them, you value their ideas, and you’re invested in them, it will motivate them to work as hard as they can.
Drive employee engagement by setting the trajectory of projects but letting trusted staff be a part of the outcomes. Your workforce will be more involved, engaged, and motivated.
3. Listen More
There’s something to be said about leading by example, but being open to the opinions of your staff is very much a part of being a good leader and can affect the overall morale of your workforce.
Letting your staff share their ideas is a great team-building tool as well. Just be patient and listen to what comes about. They will respect you for it and it will help you be a better leader.
4. Adapt to Feedback
Closely related to listening to your workforce is implementing any suggested changes they offer as feedback.
Creating a happier and more effective workplace may require you to adjust your management methods. It may also require you to change processes and procedures. It’s all for the better.
5. Think Outside the Box
Creativity is a big motivator, so use it as a tool to encourage more effective work from your workforce. By challenging your staff to think outside the box, you’re engaging them in a way that will keep them invested in the end goal of whatever project they are working on.
There’s no “one size fits all” in business, so motivate with innovative thinking.
6. Be a Leader
At the end of the day, your team members are watching and emulating you, looking to you to lead them. Is your work ethic something you want them to exhibit?
Take a look in the mirror and, if you like what you see, great, you’re all set! If not, try to recognize your own flaws. But, as they say, the new year is a time for resolutions, so if you’re working on improving yourself, your staff will surely take note.