Help Your Employees Build Their "Confidence Muscles"

Help Your Employees Build Their "Confidence Muscles"
Have you found when managing your employees that they bring
different levels of self-confidence to their work? We know
that the more confidence an individual possesses the more
efficient and productive they can be in meeting their
goals. If you view your role in managing employees as a
mutual working relationship, then you would want to be part
of nourishing their confidence.

I would suggest the following important points to use as a
guide in providing support and guidance in increasing your
employees "confidence muscles."

-Listen for your employee's current level of confidence as
it may change given the specific project they are working
on. Each person brings their personal beliefs about their
capabilities to the job. As you monitor their level of
performance, you can observe how they handle different
situations. In managing employees, you have so many
opportunities to be part of their success.

-Accentuate the Positive - If there is one booster that
increases an employee's confidence it's focusing on their
knowledge, skills or past contributions. Managing
employees by their strengths build their confidence and in
turn, adds more to the overall success of the department.
Encourage your employees to acknowledge their contributions
to the team. Try to use the 80-20 rule...spend 80% of your
time with an employee addressing their strengths and 20%
helping them handle any issues that are hampering their
performance. Why...because you receive the most value from
their strengths.

-Set clear direction and expectations around performance so
your team members know what is expected. The clearer they
are about what they need to do, the more confident they
will be in implementing their work.

-Train - give employees the chance to succeed by providing
training. Even if you hire talent with experience, they
still need to learn.

-Plan - help your employees create and stay focused on
their goals. Their planning skills should cover yearly,
quarterly, monthly and daily. Each day they need to stay
focus on what is important and not get swayed by
interruptions and reactivity.

-Proactive - encourage your team members to be active in
increasing their level of confidence. Some ways are to
take on new projects, reading business or industry
information, and CDs or lectures on self-confidence.

-Recognition - take the time to recognize an employee who
has done excellent work. This spot acknowledgement adds
to the employee's confidence and they will continue to
perform. Don't assume they know that their work was
great...tell them.

-Encourage your employees to take risks...either by making
suggestions or trying something different.

-Follow up on a regular basis with your employees. It
would be great if you could meet monthly, but at least on a
quarterly basis.

==>Final Thought

Start the whole process over by listening. Your ability to
listen will boost your own level of confidence as well as
the confidence of your employees.

----------------------------------------------------
Pat Brill is the author of the blog "Managing Employees"
http://www.ManagingEmployees.net . You can reach her at
pat@TheInfoCrowd.com.