How can you ensure that your employees are reaching their potential? There are so many different things that you can do here, and it’s going to be a case of tailoring your approach for the individual that you are currently trying to help. However, having said that there are various different ways that you can generally help your employees to reach their full potential.
You might be wondering why it’s your job or why it’s anything to do with how well your employees do, and the answer is simple. If you don’t care, and if you do not give your employees the effort they deserve from you, they will head to another company and work for them instead. Your employees matter, and if you have a single concern about retaining them, you will take this article seriously and start doing whatever you can to help them reach their potential. But, how can you do this? Let’s take a look.
Be There To Mentor Them
First up on the list you need to work on being a mentor to them. Ensure that they have a clear path and direction that they can work towards, else they could end up floundering. Of course, depending on the size of your business you are not going to be able to mentor every single employee that you have, but that’s okay because some of the other managers and higher ups in your business should be acting as mentors as well. Plus, you need to take into account the fact that there are some people who are happy where they are in their career and are not looking to make any moves at this time.
Generally though, you just need to be there to offer the advice that they need, and help them along their way a little. We know that sometimes this can be tough, but you just need to do your best and they will appreciate that.
Provide Mental Health Support
The next thing that you are going to need to do is ensure that you are providing mental health support for anyone who wants to access it in the office. Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with reaching potential, and we’re glad you asked. The thing is, one of the most common things that stops people from reaching their full potential is their mental health, and that doesn’t seem fair. At the same time, a lot of people struggle with asking for help and getting on the right track when it comes to their mental health due to stress or other reasons.
In order to eliminate this problem, create a nicer environment for your employees to work in and help them to reach their potential, you need to be offering mental health support. This should be a service that is there for them to use if they want to, without pushing them into it.
Encourage Them To Push Themselves
Speaking of pushing though, while you shouldn’t be pushing them in their mental health, you definitely should be encouraging them to push themselves professionally. If they want to be the best that they can be, and if you want to see them flourish, they are going to have to work for it. It’s not just going to be handed to them as they are going to need to learn all of the necessary things to get where they need to be. They need to challenge themselves by trying out new things, doing things that they previously thought they were not able to do, and so much more.
There are going to be times where this is a struggle, and there are going to be times where employees don’t want to push themselves because it’s uncomfortable to do so, but that’s good. It’s when they are at the most uncomfortable that they are pushing themselves the best, and it’s important that this happens for growth.
Send Them On Courses
Are you the type of boss that sends your employees on courses, or are you the type that thinks they have all of the knowledge and information that they need? Well, you need to be the former because that is the only way that they are going to learn new things, and the only way that they are going to be able to move forward in their career. There are things that you simply need to know, things that you need to refresh on every now and then, and so many things that they don’t already know.
For example, if they are not trained in first aid, then you should consider sending them to an emergency medical class. While it might not sound like something they need to know if they work an office job, everyone should know first aid just to keep everyone else in the office safe if something ever goes wrong. You should also be sending them on courses specific to their career progression, helping train them up so that you get the benefit of their new knowledge as well as them.
Don’t Let Them Slack Off
It’s important that you are not the type of boss who allows people to slack off in your business. We all have down days, we all have off days, and we all have days where we perform significantly worse than other days. All of this is fine. However, what is not fine is that you notice that someone is consistently slacking off for whatever reason. Sometimes this is because they have no motivation if they think that their career is going nowhere, sometimes they are just lazy. You need to be speaking to anyone who seems like they are slacking off, and working out how you can support them.
The most important thing that you need to do in this situation is identify the problem so that you can get them to fix it, or help them to fix it. If the slacking continues and nothing you do is working, then it might be time to consider replacing them with someone who is going to work hard for your business.
Constantly Challenge Them
The final thing that we’re going to say is that they need to be challenged. Earlier we said that you need to encourage them to push themselves, but you also need to be pushing them as well. Give them challenges to help them overcome the obstacles that they have in their career. Show them how to navigate things and prove to them that they are more than capable of doing the things that they need to do in order to progress. Of course, you can’t overload them with challenges as they may end up burning out and shutting down instead of having the intended effect. Just be careful, but don’t be afraid to push when it’s needed because if you never push them out of their comfort zone, they will never develop.
So, there you have it then. These are some of the things that you can do to ensure that your employees are reaching their potential, and that you are supporting them to do so to the best of your ability. We know that sometimes it can be a little tricky, and we know that there are going to be times where you struggle with this more than you can imagine, but you’ve just got to get on with it. You just need to keep putting the effort in and ensuring that you’re not giving up on those who work for you, because they’re not giving up on your business.
