It is a fact that when employees are more engaged in the business, they are both happier and outperform those that are not. The reason for this is the staff has something at stake when they are fully engaged in the business, which makes them more committed to its success. So, how can you get your team to be more engaged, thereby improving your chances of being a more successful manager?
Create a Departmental Vision
Whether it be a senior living facility or a hotel, every business should have a mission statement. While that statement holds true of your individual department, you should also have a mission statement that is very specific to your departmental goals that will contribute to the overall mission statement of the property. By creating a departmental mission statement, you are creating a specific vision on which your team can focus.
In order to create a departmental mission statement, get the staff involved. Ask your employees what the goals of the department should be. Use their input to create a formal departmental mission statement incorporating their answers, thereby personally investing them in carrying out that statement.
The departmental mission statement should be posted somewhere visible where every employee of the department can see it. Consider putting up a pegboard in the back hallway, so employees fulfilling the mission statement can be acknowledged for their efforts as well as telling the rest of the staff exactly what they did to deserve this honor.
This is something that should also be discussed during your staff meetings. You can also use negative experiences and work through the problem with the staff members so they can see what went wrong and how they can turn the situation around and deliver on the mission statement the next time a situation such as this arises.
Set Departmental Expectations
Setting expectations prior to developing the mission statement is counterproductive. How can you set expectations for a department when there is no vision? However, by setting expectations after a mission statement has been created and agreed upon, the staff is far more likely to agree to these expectations as they can see they are creating a path towards the mission statement/vision itself.
Be Fair and Consistent
It is only natural for a manager to have favorites on his or her staff. You are always going to have employees that work harder or that you simply clique with better. Even so, you cannot treat those employees differently when it comes to discipline and rewards. This MUST remain consistent throughout or you are setting yourself up for failure and resentment among team members.
Build a Strong Team
A strong manager finds employees that are better at their weaknesses. You do this to fill gaps in the team that need to be addressed. As a manager, you don’t necessarily need to be the best at everything, you just need to know how these things are done. Additionally, since you obviously cannot do every task yourself, find people that cannot only do the tasks, but they can do them better than you.