In my last blog, we examined the leadership strategy of leveraging and valuing the individual strengths of your employees. Today’s blog involves the 3^rd of the 5 strategies – “contracting” with your employees for their success.

One of the best ways to build employee loyalty and commitment and a culture where your best employees want to stay is to “contract” with your employees to enable them to be their best. Do not assume people know what you expect.

The very best time to contract with an employee is when they first join your team, but it is never too late to have a contracting conversation. In fact, it is good to contract with your employees at least once or twice a year to ensure you are keeping current and are informing them about all they need to know to develop and grow.

Here is what contracting ought to cover, at a minimum:

• Let them know your interest is their personal success.
• Share information about your expectations, communication preferences, the organization’s unwritten policies and any other key information they need to be successful.
• Share your goals for your organization and for them individually.
• Understand what motivated them to join your team, the top reasons for them staying and what things might potentially cause them to leave.
• Let them know you will be providing them regular feedback to promote their personal development.
• Answer any questions or concerns they have.
• Give them permission to give you specific feedback about your leadership.

Leaders who take the time to contract with their employees find they have a stronger and richer relationship with their employees as a result. It is well worth the time commitment. I encourage you to try it.

To your success,

Sue

In my last blog, we explored the 1^st of the 5 strategies – engaging and retaining your employees through your personal leadership. Today’s blog involves the 2^nd of the 5 strategies – leveraging and valuing your employees’ individual strengths.

People do not do things the way we do them, even if we think they should. People perform best when expectations are clear, but the path to achieving expectations is flexible enough to enable people to apply their special talents to meeting and exceeding your goals. The best leaders manage with the complementary skills of their employees in mind. The best leaders know that exceptional performance comes from people working to their strengths.

As leaders we need to understand our employees and give them what they need vs. what we think they need. Now that sounds pretty counterintuitive, doesn’t it? But it’s true.

As leaders we need to take the time to understand the special skills and motivations of our employees. What skills do they believe they have that the organization is not currently using? What are they most passionate about their current assignment? What are they most interested in learning and improving on in the next several years? How do they most want to be recognized for exceptional work? Some of the best teachers and mentors are employees who have the opportunity to share their skills and knowledge with others.

People don’t necessarily need what you need as a leader – they need what they need. Maybe upward mobility is really important to you, but maybe flexibility is important to them. And it may be something you can’t give them, but either way you need to know. Your employees will appreciate your interest in them and your honesty.

So the next time you think about what you can do to inspire the best from your employees, take the time to understand what matters most to them and then leverage it.

To your success,

Sue

In my last blog, I outlined 5 strategies for engaging and retaining your best talent –

1. Lead from your heart and manage with your head
2. Leverage and value individual strengths
3. Contract with your employees to help them succeed
4. Build and reward teamwork and feedback
5. Understand your people and give them what they need for success

In today’s blog, let’s explore the first of those strategies… how you lead. If you want to engage and retain your best talent, you have got to build employee loyalty and commitment through your personal leadership.

Leading from your heart and managing with your head is all about balanced leadership: showing you care and setting clear expectations, high standards and managing fairly. It is being willing to be vulnerable and letting your employees know you as a person and motivating and holding your employees accountable to exceed individual and team performance expectations, on the other.

One of the best ways to achieve balanced leadership is by regularly asking for feedback about your leadership in 1:1 discussions with your employees. To get real advice, your questions need to be specific. What is one behavior you would like me to change? What can I do that I am not doing now to help you succeed? What am I doing that is working well?

Asking for specific feedback about how you lead and taking that feedback to heart will engage your employees and improve your leadership. I encourage you to try it and let me know your results.

In my next blog, we will explore the 2^nd strategy to engaging and retaining your best talent – Leveraging and valuing your employees’ individual strengths.

To your success,

Sue

My name is Sue Oliver and my practice, Katana Partners, supports organizations in building higher levels of employee engagement, top talent retention and organizational performance.  That is the focus of this blog – exploring what it takes to Activate the Power of Employee Engagement.

My initial blog focuses on the growing concern of top talent retention. Recent estimates place the percentage of potential talent departures at approximately 60%, with another 21% unsure, but actively networking. Top talent departure estimates suggest 1 out of 4 of your best talent intend to leave if they see the opportunity to advance and grow elsewhere.

Research tells us talent departs because of the manager, not the company. So what are managers to do?

My initial blog outlines 5 strategies you can deploy to engage and retain your best talent.

1. Lead from your heart and manage with your head.
2. Leverage and value individual strengths.
3. Contract with your employees to help them succeed.
4. Build and reward teamwork and feedback.
5. Understand your people and give them what they need for success.

Top talent wants to be understood and nurtured individually but challenged as part of a larger team. Leaders who can do both successfully are a magnet for top talent.

In my next blog, we begin talking in detail about the tools and techniques you can use as a manager to apply each of these 5 strategies.

Sue Oliver is a principal for Katana Partners, an engagement consultancy focused on employee engagement, top talent retention and organizational performance.