Yesterday I tweeted that managing staff was all about building relationships, uncovering true potential and then coaching and mentoring that potential.
Why is a management accountant talking about managing people? Management Accountancy looks at businesses and how they perform. People are the key to making any business succeed. So, it’s only natural, well to me at any rate, that I should be interested in the whole idea of getting people to realise their full potential in a work enviroment:
So, back to my original tweet: Here are some thoughts and ideas that might just help you uncover and help people realise their potential:
1.Talk to your staff – Performance appraisals, even for small businesses, are a useful way of getting the conversation going about how well someone is doing in their job. Don’t make it onerous, use it as an opportunity to really get to know the people you’ve employed .
In a small business it should be a two-way discussion about skills gaps and issues within their day-to-day working life that may be preventing them from performing their job well. It should also be about their aspirations and hopes for themselves. Explore the possibility that helping them to realise their dreams might just dovetail with achieving yours.
2. Share your strategy and goals with your team. If they don’t know what the goals and objectives are for the coming year - how will you uncover whether someone would like to learn a new skill that could just help you achieve a specific goal.
3. Say thank you and notice their efforts and successes on a day-t0-day basis. It’s simple and very effective. The hardest parts are teaching yourself to notice the efforts and successes in the hurly burly of running a small business, as well as liberally offering specific praise. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature.
4. Share and pass on skills and knowledge. Take the time to share your knowledge and experience with your team. This is the easiest and simplest way to start the coaching and mentoring process to fully develop an individual’s potential.
Finally, I went to a Business Link event where I heard Josephine Fairley of Green & Black’s speak; paraphrasing her, she said that if you insist on people coming in at 9 and leaving at 5, then all you will get is the 9 to 5 mentality. If you treat people with respect and understanding, then you will get so much more.
