Q. How does an open
environment benefit
the company?
It’s efficient, in that problems
are flushed out quickly. It’s a
great place to work if you feel
like your boss appreciates what
you’re doing and knows what
you’re contributing. People
know what others are doing
and are respecting each other’s
contributions.
There are drawbacks. When
employees embrace the open-door mentality to the extreme,
you may be interrupted more often than necessary. I’ve
empowered my employees in
specific areas, built their confidence, put trust in their decision-making and designated certain times as ‘do not disturb’
blocks.
This inspires employees to focus on their individual progress.
Q. How do you motivate and
empower employees?
It’s giving employees confidence and trust. If I have confidence in them, they have confidence in themselves. Give them
ownership for projects and
acknowledge when they are
successful.
Give them the opportunity to make mistakes. You don’t want
people making $100,000 mistakes but easy ones because
that facilitates the learning
process. When they mess up,
say, ‘Here’s what happened, this
is where you went wrong, but
that doesn’t change anything
about what a great job you have
and all you have learned.’ It’s
having them know that you
trust them and their decision-making ability and allowing
them to make smaller decisions.
Get comfortable in the areas in
which mistakes make less of an
impact on the company’s overall
objective. If you outline the goals
and expectations of a particular
position, you reduce the severity
of any potential mistake.
Motivating and rewarding is
about recognition and making
sure that you’re communicating
and acknowledging it.
It takes your company to the
next level, and you get better
results. It makes life easier
because you can do a lot more
than you could by yourself or
with the wrong people.
Q. How do you implement an
employee reward system?
Start one at a time. Don’t overwhelm because you don’t want
to come off as cheesy. If you go
in and say, ‘I hired a consultant
or I read an article on how to
motivate employees,’ it comes
off as insincere.
… Be real. If you are sincere
and care about your employees,
they buy in to it. It’s hard
because you have so much to
do. Put things on your calendar
and find something good an
employee did, so you don’t get
too busy and forget about them.
If you put it into a system, it
makes it easier.
HOW TO REACH: JW Tumbles, (858) 794-0484 or www.jwtumbles.com
