Team Issues? Sprinkle a dose of Care!

Employee engagement is directly proportional to how appreciated your employees feel. By ‘feel’ I am not referring to their emotions alone. No matter what personality types you have on your team, here are five simple ways to improve your team’s engagement and performance.

Value their time. No matter how cool a boss you may be, your team can remain disengaged if you waste their time and effort. Inefficient projects, inadequate planning and failure to implement ideas effectively result in lack of motivation. This requires a manager to put in thought when designing team objectives and projects. It is also better to provide some free time to your team when there’s nothing pressing to do instead of constantly keeping them busy just because ‘they’re getting paid for it’. If you don’t value your team’s time, they will not value yours or the company’s.

Provide effective feedback. What’s worse than no feedback? Ineffective or delayed feedback. Providing feedback on your team’s performance shows that you’re paying attention. Affirmative feedback and constructive feedback – both work as long as you discern the timing well.

Encourage leave days and breaks. Have you heard of companies that grant unlimited leave days to their employee? It works for them because it improves employee efficiency in a lot of ways. Employees work harder and don’t mind long hours because they know that they can take a break from work when they need to. Therefore, it works in favor of both employers and employees. Even if you’re the boss of the smallest team in the company and cannot change assigned leave days, you can find ways to help your team maximize breaks and leaves without breaking rules. It will be rewarding.

Treat them to a meal. Food and especially the good free kind is one of the easiest ways to show your team that you care.

Stand up for them. Your decisions affect your team. Leaders are respected because they protect their teams and help them succeed. Recommend your team for capacity building initiatives and promotions. Help them get those incentives and bonuses. Leaders who simply pursue their own agenda break their teams up and fast track the company towards failure.

Employees are your BIGGEST assets. Treat them royally.