employee development

Overcoming Organizational Adversity with a Servant Heart

Most team members appreciate a leader who is committed to helping them grow and achieve their personal and professional goals. A leader who is heavily invested in this mindset, also called a servant leader, helps team members develop & build upon their strengths which in turn will make the team and organization stronger. When your organization experiences a setback or something goes wrong, these leadership skills get put to the test. You may be tempted in these times of stress to adopt a more dictative or authoritative stance to maintain controls, however, a servant leader will remain consistent with serving the needs of the team. The best way through a rough patch, is the same way you built a strong team to begin with – by being a servant first. Lean on the Skills You’ve Honed Consistency is a leadership quality that most team members appreciate. It communicates stability and focus. Maintaining the servant leadership skills you use during times when everything is going smoothly can reassure your team and lets them know that although there may be some turmoil, everything around them is not going to change suddenly. In fact, some of these very strategies can help pull your organization out of a slump: Adaptability – Adjusting a process that is not working as well as you planned can often resolve major problems. By modeling this tactic to your team, you show them that you are able to be flexible. You also demonstrate that you are willing to lead by example by re-examining something that is not working well. The humility and maturity required to adapt to solve problems can increase your team’s confidence in you. Reinventing continuously with your team demonstrates that you value adaptability and creativity, and you are there to support them through the process. Connection – During times of adversity, it is imperative that you maintain your connection with your team and support their collaboration. You may be tempted to withdraw and figure out the problem on your own. On the surface, this may seem like a good way to save time. In reality, though connecting your team with the decision-making process can help everyone get on board with it more quickly. It’s easier to implement a solution that the whole team created together than it is to convince others to try something new that they have no ownership in. Leaders skilled in servant leadership understand the importance of listening to their team members. This type of collaboration often leads to the best solutions. A servant leader is one who is focused on ensuring the best ideas win, not being a hero or proving they have all the answers. Selflessness – One quality of a good leader that tends to rise to the surface during hard times is a willingness to put the team and the business ahead of selfish concerns. A servant leader understands the priority is to take care of the team and help those they serve achieve their personal and professional goals. You must be willing to support those you serve through giving of your time, creating opportunities, and by ensuring the necessary resources are available. You may not have to go so far as to take a pay cut to raise everyone else’s salary but you must be willing to put everything on the table to support your team’s long term success. You cannot achieve long term success without ensuring those around you have what they need to be successful. This may require putting some of your own personal goals on hold to get your business back on track and safeguard your team in the process. Continue Pursuing Professional Development Goals Putting your own goals on hold does not mean that you should stop growing, in fact, the opposite. Growth requires growth, and to grow your team you must continue to grow your own skills. Failure to do so could stunt the growth of your team members. As much as 87% of millennials, likely the largest portion of your workforce, consider access to professional development opportunities as one of the key factors in engagement. Always remember that one of the main goals of servant leadership is to empower people to take your place. No organizational problem is large enough to justify a lax approach to leadership development and thoughtful succession planning. You need to continue to take steps to further your development as well as that of your team: Make regular appointments to discuss goals. Each member of your team deserves to have time each month to discuss their professional goals and get advice on how to pursue them. These check-ins don’t have to be lengthy, but you should set aside enough time to discuss their strengths and learn about the skills they want to work to improve. Suggest professional development opportunities. Once you know where someone wants to take their career, it is easier to find learning opportunities that help them get there. Keep up this practice during difficult times to remind team members of their future potential. Set a realistic timeline. A common struggle for people who want to advance their careers is knowing when they’re ready to take the next step. Loyal team members may feel stuck when the organization is not growing at a pace they expect or they do not see a clear roadmap for growth. Continuing to discuss goals in the context of their unique professional growth can put their minds at ease. A servant leadership management style can increase team members’ level of commitment to the organization even through adversity. Credibility is tested during these times. Employing the leadership skills that work well during times of growth when there are setbacks reaffirm your commitment to your team and will help you set your organization on a stronger course. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Get Involved to Create a Passionate Workforce

One of the most important characteristics of servant leaders is that they understand the value of getting their hands dirty to support and lead their team effectively. These are the leaders who are not above participating in any task to get the job done. Being involved and supportive of your team helps to create a work environment where your team is engaged and feels inspired to innovate. Here are four tips to help you lead and inspire your team to create a culture of engagement, innovation, and inclusiveness. Assess the Workplace Culture One of the main reasons aspiring servant leaders fall short of creating an efficient workplace is not assessing and acknowledging the starting point. It is easy to entertain grand perceptions of a team’s performance and how organizational culture helps and hinders this. However, an objective assessment is necessary to see where your team or company truly stands. You must ground yourself in reality and understand both where you are and where you want to go to create a roadmap between these two points. Sometimes there are clear signs that a company needs this assessment. Reduction in employee morale and productivity or increased turnover can all be signs. Another common factor is employee complaints. If the same complaints keep resurfacing, it is time to consider what cultural factors are driving this. Inc. suggests that servant leaders can become involved in this step by creating surveys and scheduling more one-on-one time for performance assessments that can be used to generate ideas. This can also help to increase engagement and build stronger relationships over a period of time. Try to Find Your Center Harvard Business Review conducted a study to determine what characteristics make leaders truly inspirational. The study made some surprising findings. For starters, responders said that less than half of leaders inspired them or unlocked any motivation in the workforce. Even fewer said their leaders made good role models. When asked what traits defined good leaders, one stood out above the rest. This trait was “centeredness.” It involves a state of self-awareness that allows leaders to remain calm under even the most stressful situations. Centeredness also reportedly helps leaders to practice active listening, show empathy and remain fully present. Because this is a trait that can benefit all team members, leaders can make this a group effort. On-site meditation classes, mental health services and even yoga classes can assist with this. Almost every team member plays a leadership role at some point of the work process, so everyone can benefit by tactics that help create a level head. Get to Know Your Team In the words of Forbes, when it comes to inspiring employees, leaders need to know more than the recipe; they also need to know the ingredients. Many leaders acknowledge that employees are the building blocks of the organization and its culture; however, they may take a more collective approach to assessing team members. The larger the workforce, the more likely this becomes. Forbes encourages leaders to rise above this tendency by getting to know the inner makings of each team member. What motivates them? What are their hobbies? What are their values? By understanding the ingredients, servant leaders put themselves in a better position to create a recipe for success and best support those they serve. When leaders take a hands-on approach to becoming involved in workforce management and day-to-day tasks, they create more opportunities for creating community. This helps to provide the contact point they need to better understand how each team member thinks and what further resources they may need to level up their performance and achieve their personal and professional goals. Help Create Purposeful Work When you understand what drives your team members, you are in a better position to create work with a purpose. Ascribing a strong value to each aspect of the work process caters to the underlying values professionals may hold on to. It also helps to nurture the feeling of doing work that makes a difference. One way that servant leaders can achieve this is by tying individual objectives back to company goals. For example, a contact center may take over an account with poor customer service reviews. To raise customer ratings, agents may need to earn five-star ratings from customers in a post-call survey when they creep forward from two stars to three starts with a prescribed time, rather than focus on the gap from five-stars, encourage them to continue on their improvement trend and push toward five stars.. This is far more motivating for your team than being told the work they do is not enough or has little effect on the overall organizational goals. Next work together to create a plan to continue this momentum. Lastly, create rewards for positive milestones achieved and you will create energy within your team. Employee engagement plays an integral role in productivity levels at every company. When servant leaders play an active role in encouraging a culture where team members hold themselves and colleagues accountable for high-performance standards, the results can be phenomenal. At Etech, we put these principles into practice every day to maintain a workforce that is as excited about happy customers as our clients are. For more information about our contact center services, send us an email at info@etechgs.com. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Why Successful Businesses Focus on Developing People – Not Employees

State-of-the-art technology is very useful in modern businesses, but it’s impossible for computers to replace the human element. People bring essential qualities like creativity, innovation and outside-the-box problem solving to the table that successful businesses depend on. Since the most important assets in any organization are its people, helping them to develop additional abilities and assume increased responsibilities should be a priority. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. Why not? Why Personal Development for Staff Members Often Takes the Backseat While many managers honestly desire to see team members grow, it’s easy to let urgent calls and meetings get in the way. A common misconception is that customer needs take priority all the time, and that training and development for company personnel is less important. This is a very shortsighted view of company wellbeing, however. A recent Harvard Business Review study revealed that even though many employees appreciate the added responsibilities and opportunities for advancement they receive, a large number of workers often feel that training, encouragement and mentoring is lacking in their company. What can happen when staff members feel that way? Put simply, they’re likely to leave in search of greener pastures. This means businesses lose valuable people with innate talents that could have become major organizational stars, future management powerhouses with an important forward-looking outlook. How To Help Your People Grow As Individuals and Be More Productive The answer, in a word, is mentoring. Share your valuable business and life experience to help others realize their full potential in the organization. Here are four steps to take: Be genuine: Get to know the members of your team personally. Find out details about their family, personality, and Your personal interest helps you inspire the people around you, and also gives you valuable insight into their strengths and aptitudes so you know which direction to nudge them in. Assign tasks: Micromanaging doesn’t help people learn to become good managers themselves. Give them a few increased responsibilities you think they’re ready to motivate them. Provide proper training and tools: This is where many managers fail. Besides new assignments, make sure to give your personnel the instructions and tech they need to succeed, including promoting honest questions. Follow up: After enough time has passed, check out how they did. Give plenty of sincere commendation for good work and also point out one or two ways things could go even smoother. If You Train Them, Your Business Will Prosper Viewing employees as people – with unique strengths and future potential – instead of numbers on a sheet isn’t just good for them, it’s also good for your company: Increased loyalty and honesty from staff members Improved productivity and superior work quality Stronger, family-like organization Talented individuals with in-depth company knowledge in the right leadership roles When the people who work for you feel content, valued and inspired, they have a reason to go to work every morning with a smile on their face and a sense of purpose. Motivated staff members work harder, think more clearly and develop amazing strategies because they give their all for your company. Who inspired them to reach the organizational position they’re passionate about and develop the skills that make them great at it? That’s right, you did.

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