How many times do we hear that “our people are our most valuable asset”?
However this statement is often lip service as the actions of organisations often totally contradict it. If they are, we need to invest in them, we need to value them and we need to reward them. If the statement were to be turned into “our shareholders are our most valuable asset”, it would be far more credible.
Getting the most out of your most valuable asset – your people – requires an investment of time and resource. Popular retention drivers are salary, benefits, promotion, self-development, retirement income, flexible working and less work related stress. So how can an organisation help itself, its people and its performance?
The answer is simple: invest in them.
By creating a coaching culture an organisation allows leaders to truly understand their employees, and hence enables them to get the very best from their teams. In doing so an organisation creates an environment where employees feel trusted, supported and energised – all key for better performance, greater cohesion and enhanced business success.
Leaders today have many challenges when it comes to guiding, motivating and influencing the performance of their team members. In the past, productivity and success depended on control and hard work. Technological advances, increased competition (domestic and international), and the desire of employees to be more involved in managing their own work, are powerful forces in shaping the modern leader’s role.
The need for quality, service, innovation, agility and effectiveness in organisations is stimulating a demand for employees to be empowered to think, feel and act more independently, and to be given more responsibility as organisations become more about learning than control.
The Chinese proverb sums it up nicely: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a Day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
What does this mean for modern leadership?
It means a substantial change in the role of the traditional leader and in his/her skills to interact on a one-to-one basis. The new job of the leader is to coach, develop, train, delegate and facilitate rather than doing all the planning, organising and directing from an authoritative base.
Tips for Modern Leaders to get the most out of their teams:
The key ingredient to a team’s success is its ability to communicate. From direction and supervision from a leader to feedback, ideas and progress reports from a team. A truly empowered team will cover all these aspects