Leaders have quite a bit of influence on an employee's performance on the job. What they do to understand the motivations, strengths and weaknesses of an employee helps to tailor an employee's ongoing development and career goals. Two ways that a leader can accomplish these goals is to establish a working relationship and communicate expectations of learning before and after sending an employee to a learning event.
Establish a Working Relationship
When working with a new group or employee, establish a common understanding on how you are going to work together. Either in a group or individually, set some time aside to get the employee(s)' perspective on the following:
2. What don’t we know but would like to know about our manager?
3. What are our concerns about our manager?
4. What do we want to know about our organizational goals and related critical business objectives?
5. What recommendations would we make for addressing our organizational goals and critical business objectives?
6. What do we want most from our manager?
7. What does our manager need to know about us as a group?
8. What can each of us do to support our manger’s success?
9. What are the major problems facing our managers?
10. What are our suggestions for dealing with these problems?
11. (For new managers
Keep revisiting these questions with your employees to make sure that they continue to be clear on the goals and objectives of the organization and your specific unit. Check back when there are significant organizational changes that effect the goals of the unit.
Communicate Expectations of Learning
Before your employee is to attend training, sit them down privately and discuss the importance of the training they will be participating in. Review the the class details and confirm with them that learning is a part of what they are paid to do at work because it is part of their work. Engage them on what they would like to take away from the training and have them write down three things they are going to do to use the skills they learned while in class. Let the employee know that you will be expecting them to meet with you after the class to discuss what was covered and what they have committed to practice from their learning. Confirm with them that it is o.k. if what they implement does not produce results that they would have expected. Additionally, reassure the employee that the only way to fail is not to try.
Lastly, continue to communicate with employees as to what they would like to learn and the direction they would like to take with their career. Give them opportunities to attend project meetings that might interest them and to job shadow areas of the organization that would interest them.
While currently the economy will steer many good employees for looking elsewhere for employment, good employees will be able to find alternative places to work in any environment. The more that an employee feels like they are a valued member of a team and that they enjoy the relationship they have with their manager, the more the employee will want to stay.
