How to bring out the best in your employees

Some of your employees may be super talented, knowledgeable, and experienced. However, when it comes to productivity and performance they may not be reaching their full potential due to a variety of reasons, including work overload, poor leadership, burnout, lack of interest, conflicts, and negativity.

Seeing talented employees not doing their best work can be discouraging. However, managers shouldn't respond with micromanagement or unfair criticism to improve performance. These will only depress their engagement and motivation. There are better ways to optimize your employee's talent and unlock their full potential.

Restrategizing your employee management practices could help in influencing your employee's commitment and willingness to work. Here are five tips to bring out the best in your employees:

• Improve leadership practices

As the workplace continues to transform and employee expectations change, positional leadership and top-down initiatives will no longer work. Adopting a leadership style that puts employees first and prioritizes their well-being is the best response. When your employees are treated and respected as people, they'll bring out their best efforts to benefit your business. As an HR Manager, you need to work closely with your leadership to put the employee-first notion to practice. The first step is analyzing the needs of your employees to foster an ideal work environment that supports trust, transparency, autonomy, empathy, development, and recognition.

• Utilize career coaching

Sometimes external challenges like low salary, uncertainty, fear of downsizing, a midlife crisis, or lack of direction, could deter your employees from reaching their fullest potential. During times like these, talking to a professional career coach could help them overcome these and help employees identify and achieve their professional goals.  Additionally, you could ask interested and experienced employees to mentor younger employees by providing insight or sharing how they got to a senior position.

• Implement continuous performance reviews

In some cases, employees may not be able to attain desired results due to the lack of clear expectations. Sometimes they may even lack have clarity on what they have to achieve or how they can achieve it. This is where continuous performance reviews come in handy. It bridges the gap between expected and actual outcomes and provides employees a sense of direction. Ideally, continuous performance reviews should be conducted every month or quarter. You could combine 360-degree feedback and self-evaluation with your performance reviews to make them comprehensive and useful to your employees. During the review, you can evaluate their performance, acknowledge wins, highlight areas for improvement, set goals for the upcoming period, and let employees know what is expected from them.

• Boost motivation with rewards

Sometimes, employees may not be giving their best because of a drop in their engagement, enthusiasm, and motivation. During these times you can restore motivation by making work fun and engaging. Encourage your managers to appreciate and acknowledge a job well done. Maybe organize an awards ceremony every quarter or every six months to celebrate major wins, thereby validating your employees' hard work. A simple certificate, trophy, or gift can go a long way. Additionally, provide raises, bonuses, and promotions to all the deserving employees where you see fit.

• Engage them with meaningful work

Encourage employees to take ownership of their work and let them work independently. That way, after completing each task, your employees will experience a personal sense of satisfaction, which will, in turn, drive them to work harder and better. Foster a sense of belonging among employees and help them connect with your organizational goals and mission. This will help them understand how their everyday tasks relate to the overall purpose of your organization.

Wrapping up

Unlocking and maximizing employee potential depends on how well you manage your employees and enable them to get their work done. Employees tend to bring out their best self to work when you support them and foster an ideal work environment that leads to superior results. We hope this blog gave you an insight on how to unlock employee potential!