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Enhance Success by Empowering Employees
Cathie Leimbach • September 23, 2020
Many leaders believe that employees don’t care about workplace culture or company results. They stifle success by ignoring strategies that would attract, retain, and empower quality people. At Leadercast 2019, Ginger Hardage , former Senior Vice President of Culture and Communications at Southwest Airlines, debunked several underlying limiting beliefs. She shared five aspects of creating a culture that empowers employees and drives organizational success.
Hardage encourages leaders to:
- Be intentional about building a healthy, uplifting culture.
- Ensure the organization has defined its core values and talk about them regularly. Include values discussions in job interviews and staff meetings.
- Ignore the naysayers who think this culture craze is all fluff. Join the parade of healthy culture, high performance companies that includes Chick-fil-A, Trader Joe’s, and Southwest Airlines.
- Develop, write down, and distribute policies and procedures that provide a framework for doing your organization’s work ethically, effectively, and efficiently. Equip your people to do the work and trust them to handle day-to-day variables within the framework.
- Strengthen culture by strengthening communication without waiting for a large line item in the budget. Have face time with your employees daily, involve them in decision-making, and share success stories.
Equip your employees by providing the right level of information and training, and they will help drive organizational success!
Today's workplaces are changing, and managers play a key role in increasing workplace morale and productivity. Research shows that managers impact 70% of what affects how engaged and effective employees are. Surveys show many employees are dissatisfied. They say that expectations are unclear, they don’t feel respected by management, they don’t get enough training, and they don't see how their work matters. With the increasing number of seniors and fewer people in the workforce, increased productivity is essential. Strong leadership is more important than ever. Managers need to develop skills to help their teams succeed. This includes: • Setting clear goals, • Showing appreciation, • Providing good training, and • Helping employees see the purpose of their work. The innovative Conversational Management program helps managers build these leadership skills. It focuses on the leadership practices which boost engagement and productivity. Managers can participate in a virtual Test Drive to see how these strategies can improve teamwork and performance. If you want better results and productivity, REGISTER HERE to join a Test Drive and learn about this highly effective leadership approach!
Rory Vaden, a well-known author and speaker, highlights a common challenge many face: avoiding hard tasks or jobs we don’t enjoy. This avoidance can be one of the biggest barriers to achieving our goals. Instead of tackling these important tasks, we often find ourselves busy with less significant activities, distracting ourselves without even realizing it. Many people fall into the trap of responding to urgent tasks and interruptions, which can lead us away from what truly matters. For example, we might spend hours answering emails or checking social media, thinking we’re being productive, but we’re actually avoiding the important work that needs to be done. To overcome this challenge, Vaden suggests being disciplined about our time. One effective strategy is to decide to tackle important tasks early in the day when our energy and focus are at their peak. By prioritizing these tasks, we set ourselves up for success and make significant progress toward our goals. Staying focused on what matters most is essential for high achievement. With practice, we can learn to recognize our avoidance behaviors and develop habits that help us stay on track, ensuring we use our time and energy wisely to accomplish what truly counts.