Lean Tip
#3571 - Establish Trust and Autonomy
When you
trust your team to fulfill their responsibilities, they’re more likely to be
motivated. One way to establish trust is to give them the autonomy to
experiment and pursue ideas without constant supervision. This autonomy
encourages creativity and indicates you trust them to produce unique and
effective solutions.
Trust
that you hired the right people with the necessary experience to make strong
decisions. Employees might make mistakes, but that creates learning
opportunities that can lead to future success.
Lean Tip
#3572 - Give Employees Opportunities to Lead
Leadership
opportunities give employees additional responsibilities that can motivate them
to work at a higher standard. Provide these opportunities by changing who leads
project teams or rotating who leads weekly training on new skills or concepts.
Paying for an employee to earn industry licensure or certifications is another
option.
Lean Tip
#3573 - Improve Work Processes
Involving
employees in workflow design is a great motivator. It demonstrates that they
matter and empowers them to improve their daily work. Improving the workflow
can also free employees up for more interesting, higher-value tasks.
To
achieve this, get feedback from employees on all aspects of the workflow. Find
areas you can improve upon based on that feedback and your observations. As you
make changes, monitor the effectiveness and make adjustments as needed.
Lean Tip
#3574 - Inspire Creative Thinking
Just
because you’ve been doing a task one way for your entire career does not mean
that’s the best way to accomplish it. There are always problems to be solved
and better ways to do things, so use the minds around you and encourage your
employees to share creative business solutions.
Not only
will putting the challenge in the hands of your employees save you some
headaches, but it’s also likely that you’ll come out with a better result.
Clarify the ends instead of the means, and let your staff go about projects in
their own way. They might not accomplish everything exactly as you would have,
but they will get the job done with their own flair.
Lean Tip
#3575 - Practice Forgiveness for their Mistakes.
If you
get angry whenever an employee makes a mistake, they will play it safe and not
take any steps toward growth. This hurts not just the employee, but also the
organization. The purpose of employee empowerment is to allow staff members to
feel confident and courageous enough to take risks and make their own
decisions, even if not everything goes as planned.
Lean Tip
#3576 – Embrace Company-Wide Accountability Practices
When you
and other leaders acknowledge your mistakes as well as successes, employees see
you as credible and will follow your lead. You can encourage
honest dialogue and foster accountability by building in processes that become
part of the culture, such as an evaluation of every project (positives,
negatives, things to change) or a status report and next steps in each meeting
agenda (tracking deadlines and milestones).
This
approach also supports a culture of continuous learning and helps team members
see that you understand mistakes will be made, but want to support learning
from them. In this way, you build trust because employees will be less fearful
of making mistakes, which is important not only for trust but for innovation.
Lean Tip
#3577 – Solicit Feedback and Take Action on Suggestions
We’ve all
been here before – we took time to complete an employee engagement survey and
then never heard about the results or saw any changes from leadership. Leaders
need to counter this trap by listening actively with a bias for action. After a
company-wide survey, share what you’ve learned and what you hope to improve.
After
asking your team members, “what’s on your mind” or “what could we be doing
better?,” share what you might be able to act on and keep employees updated on
progress. It’s not always practical to respond immediately, but make a point to
respond in some way after the feedback is gathered. When you do so, make sure
to share an appreciation for their thoughts and help employees understand why
you are taking certain actions, or conversely, why you may not be able to
implement their approach or make the change at the moment.
Lean Tip
#3578 – Listen More Intently and Deliberately
One of
the biggest mistakes leaders make is they tend to talk too much, thinking they
need to constantly be the one in charge and directing what’s discussed.
The
reality is that the more time you spend listening, the better you’ll do in
learning important information that improves the business – and builds the
trust of your team. Employees crave a leader who cares about what they have to
say.
Along
with becoming a better listener is allowing for moments of silence, as those
moments inevitably invite in more conversation. Sometimes people view silence
as empty space that needs to be filled, but when leaders learn to accept it –
and work with it – they allow opportunities for others to speak and be heard.
The result is often an unexpected and enlightening connection and a wealth of
information.
Lean Tip
#3579 – Empower Through Choices
To the
extent possible, give your employees autonomy to make meaningful choices
throughout the day. Micromanagement can make employees feel like you don't
trust them to make decisions on their own.
Over
time, it can wear employees down, damage workplace relationships, and even
promote a toxic work culture that ultimately hurts everyone. Remember, trust
goes both ways. You need to give it to earn it.
When you
trust your employees to make decisions for themselves, you show trust and
empower them to take initiative.
Trusting
the decision-making capabilities of your team encourages them to make
independent decisions that represent the best interests of themselves and the
company.
To
encourage autonomy, establish clear boundaries and expectations for your team.
Ensure that all team members understand their roles and responsibilities and
have well-defined production goals.
Then, let
them approach their work in their own way. Avoid hovering, but let your team
members know that you're available for support. This means letting them come to
you if they encounter problems or questions during the day.
Not only
does this demonstrate trust in your team, but it also frees you from needing to
provide constant supervision. Further, when team members have flexibility in
their days, they have room to innovate.
They may
find creative solutions to problems, improve workflows, and develop new
approaches to tasks that benefit the whole team.
Lean Tip
#3580 – Provide Opportunities to Connect
It takes
time to develop trust between team members. For this reason, leaders can
encourage their employees to build relationships by providing time to connect.
Having
time to get to know other people in the workplace is especially important for
encouraging trust in cross-functional teams.
While
members of the same department may interact with each other daily, it can be
harder to find ways for members of multidisciplinary teams to meet and interact
outside of their essential duties.
Incorporating
team-building exercises and events into your organization allows people to come
together.
Team-building
activities can include icebreakers and games that let employees get to know
each other while working together to solve puzzles and overcome challenges.
Not only
are team-building activities fun way to break up a monotonous work week, but
they're a great opportunity for your team to build collaboration and
problem-solving skills that they'll apply to their roles.
Lean Tip
#3581 – Use Peer Mentorship and Coaching
Developing
a peer mentorship program is a great way to help the members of your team build
relationships, especially if you frequently have a mix of new and established
professionals in your organization.
With this
strategy, you assign an established member of the team to serve as a mentor for
a new employee.
Mentors
can act as friendly faces and accessible contact points to assist their mentees
during the first few weeks of employment.
This can
ease the new hire's transition and start them off with a meaningful
relationship with someone on the team.
Lean Tip
#3582 – Help Your Team
Helping
your teammates is way a build trust. If a coworker has taken on a lot of
projects and you notice they're having a hard time keeping up, offer to help.
Ask if there is anything you can do that can make things a little easier.
Helping
also spans into courtesy, so hold doors open for your coworkers, offer to carry
file boxes or help them navigate a new computer program that they find
confusing. When you're kind, you're letting your coworkers know they can trust
you.
Lean Tip
#3583 – Operate With Values
As long
as you continue to operate with workplace values, you should be able to build
trust easily. Having integrity requires you to be honest, behave honorably and
treat others with respect. Don't sacrifice your values and what you believe
just to appease a manager or try to get ahead. Your coworkers might see the
integrity, honesty and hard work you bring to the team and they trust that it's
real.
Lean Tip
#3584 – See the Value in Each Team Member
Everyone
in your workplace is there for a reason, whether it's their experience,
knowledge or how willing they are to learn and grow within a role. It's
important to celebrate the uniqueness they bring to the organization. When you
can acknowledge their personal value, you're letting them know that you see
their hard work and place great emphasis on what they contribute to the group.
To show
them you see their value, consider approaching them for expert guidance if you
need help on a task. Thank them for taking the time to explain something to you
and offer to help them in return.
Lean Tip
#3585 – Follow Through on Promises
An easy
way to build trust is by following through on doing what you say you intend to
do. If someone is relying on you to perform a task or finish a project, you
could break their trust by not completing what you should. If you know you
can't do something because you either lack the know-how or time, be honest and
upfront with your teammate so you don't end up over-promising and
under-delivering.
