So you feel you have substantial interoffice communication – that’s great! Keep it up! But are you also having the types of discussions your employees need to hear in order to feel motivated?
TRACOM’s Dr. Casey Mulqueen has studied workplace productivity for two decades and understands the benefits of interoffice communication – and more importantly the benefits of having critical conversations with your employees. Such critical conversations must include those that make employees feel valued. Dr. Mulqueen has been featured in a Business News Daily’s new article discussing the “4 Conversations You Need to Have with Your Employees”.
Having a task-oriented business culture isn’t always beneficial and if “you’re only discussing day-to-day projects and duties with your staff, there’s a good chance they’re not feeling very engaged and connected with work,” says article author Nicole Fallon.
According to Dr. Mulqueen “It’s really important to discuss people’s strengths, values and goals, and relate these things to the organization and team priorities. People are naturally motivated to work toward things that have personal value for them, and this can usually be found through recognizing their [talents].”
Having these important conversations can sometimes be uncomfortable at first, but it’s important to understand what your employees’ needs are in order to ensure their effectiveness and motivation at work. A good tip from the article is to “talk to your employees about how they want to evolve in their roles in the future, and what you as a boss can do to help them. Agree upon what the person should work on developing in the short term and over the longer term to achieve his or her career goals.”
In the article, Dr. Mulqueen recommends “starting off by telling the person what you’ve noticed he or she is good at. If the employee has shown a lot of creativity, for example, say so, and then ask if he or she would like more opportunities to use that strength. The natural follow-up to this is to ask the person what their goals and values are. Ask him or her, ‘What accomplishment would bring you the most satisfaction and help you move toward your career and personal goals?’ This type of open-ended question will usually give managers a lot of insight and make their jobs easier by helping them understand their people better, Mulqueen said.”
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