LEADERSHIP EXPERT HOLLY LANDAU DISCUSSES SOME COMMON EMPLOYEE ISSUES AND OFFERS ADVICE ON HOW TO OVERCOME THEM AND LEAD YOUR TEAM TO SUCCESS.
This article was excerpted from OPEN Book: Leadership. Find more information and resources from OPEN including a podcast featuring Holly Landau at openforum.com/leadership.
In these economically challenging times, employee engagement is absolutely critical to your company’s success. You manage things like your budget, your time, and your inventory. You lead people. Leaders influence, inspire and motivate others toward success. There are many styles of leadership but the common goal is always the same. Holly Landau offers some guidelines about some of most common employee challenges and suggests ways for business owners to establish, implement and sustain successful employee engagement practices.
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How can I encourage passion in my employees?
An important step you can take as a business leader is to engage your employees in creating an innovative and customer-centric organization. Challenge your team with open-ended questions to prompt innovative and customer-centric ideas, such as:
- Identify three things your department can do to improve customer service.
- Identify three things our customers would like us to do that we’re not doing now.
- Identify three things that will help our operation go green. You can modify the questions to meet the needs of your organization and/or customers. Managers provide answers, but leaders ask the right questions. Open-ended questions such as these will provide a venue for your employees to explore new ideas and new ways to do business, and can inspire an entrepreneurial spirit in your team.
I’ve had to downsize my staff, but now business is picking up. what is the best way to ramp-up resources?
Although you may be reluctant to hire full-time, permanent employees in your ramp-up phase, the good news is that this new period also brings potential employees who might be open to nontraditional work arrangements – such as being willing to work on a contractual, part-time basis with the possibility of future full-time employment, job sharing, telecommuting, and flextime. A growing trend for small businesses is hiring part-time, virtual assistants – contract employees who work remotely and are paid for specific projects.
However, also remember to offer similar guidance and support to part-time and contract workers as you would to your full-time employees: create clear job descriptions, establish performance expectations, meet periodically to discuss progress, and provide encouragement through coaching.
Holly Landau is the CEO of Landau Leadership, a consultancy that provides customized training and development solutions through an intergenerational team of curriculum designers, facilitators and leadership development experts located throughout the US.
Learn more about Holly Landau at:
landauleadership.com or openforum.com/landauleadership
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