It’s so hard to get good help these days!

Have you ever wondered why your team is underperforming? Why can’t these people do such simple things? Why don’t they have any motivation or initiative? Why do they have to be told what to do all the time?

Instead of throwing your hands up in the air and complaining about how hard it is to get good help these days, perhaps it’s time to consider helping those that are there to help you.

How are you making it easier for them to help you? The traditional big stick approach is well-known to breed conformance to rules rather than commitment to the job, the company or to you. So what are the alternatives? The real question is: what are you doing to help the people that work for you?

Empowerment is a word that is thrown about quite loosely to the point where it has almost become meaningless. Here are some actions you can take immediately to increase the job satisfaction of your team:

1. Make sure the team knows its direction. There are few things more demoralising for an employee than to put in a lot of effort on a project only to be told that effort has been to no avail. The extension to this is to ensure that every member of the team knows his/her role in achieving those goals.

2. Praise in public, critique in private. If one of your employees comes up with a great idea, or does something commendable, tell everyone who will listen. The thrill of this will give your employee true job satisfaction. Conversely, if an error is made, show the person the dignity of a private discussion regarding what went wrong.

3. Listen to your staff and ask interesting questions. It’s amazing what this does for an individual’s confidence. Thousands of people across the country are talking behind their hands about what their boss should have done in a particular situation. If you take the time to canvass your team for ideas, and explain reasons why particular ideas aren’t feasible, then you are much more likely to have everyone on board.

4. Build their skills. You don’t have to put people through university, but you do need to build their skills. The more skillful they are the better the work that your department produces. Take the trouble to find out more about their skills, and what they enjoy doing. Find those that crave extra responsibility, teach them how to handle particular situations, take the time to make them better.

Look for strengths in those closest to you. Acknowledge those positives. Focus on positives and build skills, because when your focus is negative, that’s what you will mainly see.

Eve Ash has produced an award-winning library of DVDs that can now be streamed.