Employees are the lifeblood of a business—without them, a company is not able to overcome competitors and reach greater heights. Because of this, it is important that you think of your personnel as your partners in business. Remember that a good boss can build a team of employees who will help carry the business towards success and not just assist as servants there to carry out his or her every decision.
If you want to become an admirable boss and achieve success for your company with the help of your employees at the same time, it is imperative that you understand that the truth about creating a dream team. It goes way beyond recruitment and entails continued support and guidance for the employees to improve with the business.
To learn more about this, read on to know what it takes to become a great boss and understand how you can help your employees help your business grow.
What Makes a Good Boss?
Before you can guide your dream team, you must first determine what makes a good boss. Honestly speaking, knowing what you have to do to become a good boss is hard since there is no one formula that fits every single case.
7 Ways You Can Help Your Employees Grow
After recruitment, some bosses tend to just leave their employees be. While this may seem to be the natural thing to do, it may become counterproductive. This is especially true if your goal is to establish a company where most, if not all, the employees are happy and nurtured.
Remember that developing employees to become your dream team means you have to let them grow. Here are seven expert-proven ways you can support your employees’ development and be a good boss at the same time:
1. Establish a Growth Plan
Growth should begin at the very start of employment. Therefore, you should collaborate with your employees in creating a customized growth plan specially made for each of them. This will allow them to see a future with the company and decide on the path they want to take within the organization.
2. Allow Room for Growth
One reason why you should engage your employees in creating a growth plan for themselves is to let them know that their progress is still in their hands. That said, you should also give them room to grow and learn things on their own. This is a more effective coaching strategy as it also cultivates a sense of accomplishment on the part of the employee once he or she accomplishes things without the boss’s help.
3. Provide Avenues for Learning
Learning is a continuous process, so make sure to open up opportunities for your employees to study new skills. You can do this by offering executive coaching, skills workshops, and other innovative learning experiences that are engaging and interesting. This can also come in the form of destination learning and interactive exercises.
4. Mentor Them
Mentoring is another way you can share your knowledge with your employees. A mentor-mentee relationship is inevitable if you’re truly bent on pushing your staff to become the best they can be. It is also a great way to build a bond of trust that is a requisite for a harmonious office environment.
5. Open the Business to Them
Opening the business to employees means you are creating a mentality of ownership among your personnel. To achieve this, you have to start trusting them with important decisions and allow them to use the skills and knowledge they learned from all the training they’ve been going through. Otherwise, you’re only wasting effort and money in honing them.
Just think of it like this: Your employees will feel empowered by the new skills and knowledge they gained if they are given a chance to use them. This will also make them see that they are significant and valued members of the company.
6. Set Aside Time for Growth
Growth will not happen, no matter how many training opportunities you give your employees, if you don’t allow them time to digest what they just learned. Set aside 10 percent of their time at work for professional or personal growth with only one rule to follow: to hone a skill that can directly affect their performance in the company.
7. Take Interest in their Development
Regular face-to-face encounters with the boss make an employee feel important and empowered. This is especially true if you take an interest in how they are faring in the business and listen to their feedback on issues and the challenges they faced.
During these encounters, you should be able to support them or offer your help when necessary. In return, they should offer you unwavering loyalty.
Take Home Advice: Be a Leader, Not a Boss
The key difference between a leader and a boss lies in how they handle their employees. While bosses take charge and assign tasks to their workers, leaders offer them a chance to take responsibility in making crucial decisions for the organization. Follow this guide and be the leader your company needs.
AUTHOR BIO
Salma El-Shurafa is an experienced Executive Coach and founder of The Pathway Project. She is a Professional Certified Coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach from The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and a graduate of CTI’s Co-Active Leadership program.
