December is a time of reflection - especially this December after so much drama and agony more than anything else.
A good time to sit back and look at what went well in the year before, what could have gone better, and how this insight can help us kick off a successful new year.
The pandemic’s economic and societal jolt has ignited a rethinking of many of our regular assumptions about work and life. Leading through the pandemic has been hard, exhausting, and sometimes terribly sad.
Events
Every year, business leaders begin work in January with a series of events including celebrations, recognising and rewarding employees, new goal setting, strategy formulation and alignment, motivational programs and plans to accomplish goals in the coming months.
Communication can be the first step to making real, meaningful changes – changes for improvement. And then managing the mindset of the employees right throughout the year. Every single day is critical, hence maintaining a high energy level is crucial to business success.
Whether we like it or not, from many aspects, 2022 will be a tougher year with a complex local economy.
Despite the looming world economic downturn, even if the local macro environment improves expanding our markets, each business will have more competition.
You know how competition intensified over the past two years with permanent peace dawning. Even if none of these work as barriers, meeting your stakeholders’ mounting expectations will pose incremental challenges.
Bottom-line
If you raise your own expectations on top of the demanded expectations by others you will challenge yourself to get the best out of you for an improved bottom-line.
So it’s not doing the same we did last year but doing it differently for the same result. If we want more - we have to change at a higher degree. Clearly explain to each employee what is expected of him or her during this year. Remind them of why he or she was given that specific role.
Raise your level of expectation aligning with the challenge and goals. If your employees see you expect more out of them within realistic boundaries, they’ll be encouraged to be committed.
Common goal
On the other hand, if your employees know management doesn’t think that they can perform at a high level, they won’t be motivated to do any more than the least amount of work necessary to get their pay.
Set specific communication times and timelines.
To run a successful business, the employer and employee must be on the same page, working towards a common goal. It’s necessary to have open lines of communication.
Deciding how often to meet and review -- whether on a weekly or monthly basis -- will streamline issues and questions and ensure that important items are addressed and timely decisions are taken. Motivation is the key to tap into the inner power of people. Motivation is two-fold – internal and external motivation. Internal is self and external is by others.
What is more fruitful and sustainable are one’s own personal motivational forces. Creating an organisational environment within which employees can gain job satisfaction is the only way for inner motivation of employees.
For the employer this means optimum realisable quality results through people. Self motivation is more long lasting and effective – it’s a win-win for both the employee and employer.
Inspire self motivated staff by trusting them to work on their own initiatives rather than leader imposed initiatives. It’s a mind game - and it all depends on how you manage the mindset of the employees as a leader.