Can Staring at Your Employees Be A Good Thing?

In the first post on Empowering Your Team, we discussed the importance of being fascinated with your employees. Today, we’re discussing taking it one step further and studying them. That might sound a little weird, but I assure you, it’s an important step and easier than you might think! 

Practice the art of observation. As you observe your employees, you’ll start to understand their habits, unique strengths, and personalities. Knowing these things allows you to better empower them!

You might be thinking, “I’m busy. I don’t have time to sit around studying people.” I will share several opportunities you have in your normal day to observe. 

Leverage Short Interruptions: View short interruptions as an opportunity to study your team. As they talk, observe their body language, mannerisms, and tone of voice. Pay attention to the topic at hand and the language they use. 

Use Meetings as a Place for Observation: You can observe your team during meetings, whether in person or via Zoom. How are they interacting with one another? Is one person doing all the talking? Are there team members who are shy and aren’t speaking up? Can you give them the opportunity to share? You’ll often find that many people have brilliant ideas to share; they just don’t like to be the center of attention.

Learn how people want to be appreciated: Only some people like to be appreciated publicly. Being recognized and put on display can be awkward, depending on personality type. As you observe your employees, note who likes public appreciation and who prefers to be quietly acknowledged.

The more you study your employees, the more you’ll learn about them. You’ll put them into positions that fit them, positions that they’re wired for. Your team will notice the difference.

Why put in the effort?
Engaged and appreciated employees are far more productive, creative, and collaborative. When an IT client of mine recently adopted these empowerment strategies, his team took their goals for this year and 4x’ed them just because he began to empower them and dive into their strengths and solutions. 

Imagine what could happen to your organization and bottom line if you empowered your team like my IT client has.  

So, take the time to observe. Learn about the people you’ve hired to help run your business. This will make a big difference in terms of understanding the next step, which is all about listening well. 

In the next email, we will examine the importance of listening and asking powerful questions. Part three of empowerment is about implementing the first two strategies using the power of listening and asking great questions.