If Your People are Your Greatest Asset as I wrote in a recent blog post, what do you as a leader need to be doing to look after that greatest asset. You need to convince them of that by your actions, not merely mouth the words. You need to inspire their intrinsic motivation. You need to Engage, Empower and Elevate your people. When you look after your people, they will look after your organisation.

Engage Your People

• Engage intentionally and authentically with your people building relationships of trust.

 

• Create a psychological contract for them with a bottom line commitment of: “We will look after you, if you look after our organisation.”

 

• Inspire their further commitment by acknowledging their contribution, valuing and appreciating them.

 

• Get to know them and what motivates them.

 

• Be visible – physically and psychologically – so they know you and what you stand for.

They will then want to work WITH you, not just FOR you.

Empower Your People

• Be an empowering leader for your people by creating a pro-active, energised, “can do”, learning culture.

 

• Be the coach, not the critic.

 

• Focus on their strengths and, in that way, empower them to perform at their highest level.

 

• Give them the autonomy they need to be intrinsically motivated and give 150%.

 

• Inspire that by offering multiple and diverse opportunities for them to grow and develop their skills and own personal brand.

Elevate Your People.

• Encourage your people to set goals and help them align their goals with those of the organisation so that your success becomes their success.

 

• Show them how they can make a difference in the organisation.

 

• Take your talented people and give them opportunities to advance and elevate their careers.

 

• If you cannot offer vertical promotion, create horizontal stretch opportunities that challenge and prepare them for elevation in the organisation in the future.

 

• Motivate them to act like a leader so as to attract leadership to them.