Are you a great boss to your employees? A great boss is a person who creates and maintains a safe, inspiring work environment where talented, engaged employees THRIVE.
Great bosses create clear performance standards and clear values standards and hold everyone (including themselves) accountable for both each day.
In these work environments, employees perform better (40% or more better), serve customers better (40% or more better), and produce higher profits (30% or more higher). Let’s look at one of the best practices of GREAT bosses.
GROWTH
Great bosses create avenues for team members to learn new approaches, develop new skills, and gain confidence to put those skills into action in the workplace.
Great bosses do not let team members”rest on their laurels” or allow their skill sets to stagnate. Great bosses know that their organization and their global marketplace is constantly changing and evolving.
The only way great bosses can ensure talented, engaged team members are held in the highest esteem by their organization is to continually boost team members’ contribution and value to the company.
Here are a few ways that great bosses I’ve observed and studied helped their team members grow.
Boost standards. Customers’ expectations constantly evolve. They want products and services that exceed their needs, and they want competitive prices. Your competitors aim to boost their market share with new products and services. Your business offerings can’t stand still. Great bosses set higher performance standards annually (if not more frequently), then help team members improve efficiency, reduce costs, and speed products to market to exceed those standards.
Build skills. What do you call talented, engaged team members with skill sets that no longer serve the company? At risk! In order to maintain that desired standing (talented & engaged), team members must honestly assess how well their skills serve current and future performance expectations. Great bosses coach team members to proactively toss old skill sets and engage in building new, needed skill sets, regularly.
Visit customers. How do customers utilize your products and services today? How are customer needs evolving – and how might your company address their needs? Great bosses create opportunities for team members to get practical understanding of customer needs by face-to-face visits and interactions. Personal relationships with customers drive open conversations and loyalty. Such relationships also uncover opportunities for team members to serve their customers more effectively.
Shared leadership. Great bosses give talented, engaged team members regular opportunities to lead. Facilitating team meetings or project team sessions can boost team member skills and confidence. Presenting concepts and proposals to internal and external customers help team members internalize needs and approaches as well as increase their comfort with public speaking. Asking talented, engaged team members for their ideas and solutions is a more casual way that great bosses share leadership.
Contribute your thoughts about this post/podcast in the comments section below. In what ways have your great bosses helped you to grow, to boost your contribution and value to your organization?
What is it like to live in your organization’s culture? Share your experiences in my fast & free Performance-Values Assessment. Results and analysis are described on my blog site’s research page.
This research can help you refine your organization’s corporate culture. Contact me to discuss conducting the Performance-Values Assessment in your company.
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