One of the biggest challenges every manager has to face is how to keep their employees motivated and effective. As a manager, you need to find out what tools or resources your workers are lacking, or perhaps what changes in management style need to be made to be more effective. If you want to find out what you can do to keep your staff engaged, all you need to do is ask your employees.
Asking these straightforward questions will give you an idea of what your employees need to be more effective at work:
“How would you like to be rewarded?”
As a manager, you may not always understand and know what your employees really want. On the other hand, when you allow them to spell it for you, you will know exactly what it is that can motivate them. By upgrading your reward system to include flexi hours, dress-down days, or even a quarterly company outing, your employees will have more reasons to work harder and become more productive.
“What can make you work best?”
Depending on your company and its work environment, it is likely that you won’t be able to accommodate all your workers’ request. But by knowing what things can make your workers be more efficient in their jobs, you may at least make small changes to the workplace. Perhaps you may allow them to work from home once a week, or you may provide free snacks from time to time. If the request is minimal and within your capacity to provide, you should make your workers feel that you sincerely care about their needs.
“What part of my management style do you like and dislike?”
The bravest thing you can do as a manager is to practically ask your workers what they like and dislike about your management style. It would require a lot of courage on your part, but when you hear the opinions of your employees, you will have a better idea of how effective you are as a manager. Although there are annual performance reviews you can take to gauge your performance, it is still different when you hear it straight from the people you are managing.
To make this strategy work, you need to be open-minded and ready to hear what you don’t want to hear. Some of your employees may have something bad to say about you, but remember that you are doing this to become a better leader.
Conclusion
If you want to be a more effective manager, you should stop guessing what could make your employees more engaged and productive at work. All you need to do is ask. And when they give you the answers to your question, make sure that you will do something about it so that positive change may occur in your workplace.