Today I had a conversation with an employee about career development and mapping. As a leader these are the times you can directly impact overall relationships. In today's business world we are always focused on next quarters earnings report that sometime we forget about the people that are actually making the earnings possible. I would argue that in some cases career development and being part of the larger picture is more important than compensation. Sure some might say "I want more money," my question would be are they in it for the right reasons? In my career I certainly wanted more money but I would rather be part of the bigger decisions, have a larger impact, all of which traditionaly result in higher compensation. Once you have an employee that wants more out of their current role these are the easiest people to motivate as they see the bigger picture.
As leaders it is our responsibility to sense how our employees are feeling. Employee surveys are great if they are used for mass organizations the key is to have strong individual relationships to drive these results higher. Too many times a company drives training, development and career mapping based off these results. For example if the mass survey says the group needs more training the company might react by hiring external trainers to deliver this additional training. The company feels great as they have delivered on the action item. The question is did they know one of their top performers wanted to be engaged in the training? The company might have lost this opportunity to challenge someone and develop their skills further.
When having these thoughts it is important to be honest with people and deliver on the on the promises that you make. The excitement that comes with opportunity can be crushed in a matter of seconds with a lost promise. Once this level of trust has been broken this relationship might never be restored.
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I strongly agree with topic you have addressed in this recent blog post.
After reading this post I immediately was able to identify this same situation within my own office. I recently asked my employees what could make their role within the office seem more valuable and in return give them a more secured sense of self worth. As to my surprise, thinking that the employee would not give any suggestions or feedback, the respond with Give me a special assignments.
After assigning a certain task to the employee the employees attitude did a 180 degree turn.
It pays to get feedback and feedback positive or constructive must always be addressed.
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