Steve Davis, CEO — Total Wealth Academy.
If you want your business to be successful, then your employees must be successful. When they fail, it costs you lost opportunities, lost customers and lost revenue, meaning one of your most important jobs as an entrepreneur or business leader is teaching others how to be successful in their own right.
Providing proper training on the skills employees need is a core component of positioning them for success, but it’s not the only element. The way you lead your employees on a day-to-day basis also plays a pivotal role in helping them be successful.
The following concepts are a few that I’ve leveraged in my own leadership roles to not only teach my employees to be successful but also to drive the ultimate success of my business.
Hire, train and retrain.
I hear plenty of leaders say they aren’t finding success because they can’t find good employees to hire. Oftentimes, they’re looking for a person with the skills and experience they believe can take them to the next level, searching for just the right person for the roles they have available.
I take a different approach to hiring. Rather than hiring the right person, I hire a good person, then train and retrain them to give them what they need to become the right person.
I rarely worry about experience when I am hiring. In fact, I’ve found that hiring experienced people can often work against a business’ overall success. Often, they need to be untaught and retaught to work with your systems and processes, which entails twice as much work—if not more.
Good recruits will have strong general skills and will frequently prove to be good communicators and leaders. If they have technical skills that fit the position, that’s a bonus, but if they have the right general skills, you can train them in the technical skills they need to succeed in their position.
A hallmark of a strong leader is a willingness to retrain people. If you hire a good person only to find they aren’t doing a good job, it’s typically a flag that the position is wrong—not the person. In these cases, it’s your duty to find them a position where they can thrive and retrain them to excel in it. After all, a critical part of teaching others how to be successful is helping them find a position that fits well with their skills and goals.
Don’t get your circles confused.
Your employees aren’t in your circle of control—they’re in your circle of influence. This means you’ll need to rely more on inspiration than power to motivate them to succeed.
The problem with relying on power and control is that it invariably creates rebels. Employees who are subject to that kind of leadership end up doing just enough to get by, which kills your productivity and limits your overall success. They aren’t necessarily bad employees; they’re simply suffering from the symptoms of poor leadership.
To inspire those in your circle of influence, you must lead by example, which requires moral authority rather than formal authority. Moral authority motivates people with the “why” by showing employees why the process is important.
Formal authority, on the other hand, only gives people the “what,” similar to the methods military drill instructors use. It’s critical in that context, but it’s not what your employees signed up for. They’re looking for a leader who practices moral authority, which flows from telling the whole truth 100% of the time.
When you empower your leadership with moral authority, you’ll find you don’t even need to control people. Your employees see authenticity, transparency and commitment, which inspires them to high levels of engagement. With that kind of leadership, I’ve found employees are much more likely to believe in the mission, support it and put in the effort required to excel at their jobs.
One way I exhibit moral authority is by making an effort to catch people doing the right thing. Too many leaders focus on catching people doing the wrong thing, which only results in a negative workplace environment where no one looks forward to seeing or speaking with leadership. Instead, be the person who encourages the right action—rather than discouraging the wrong action—and you’ll see your influence (and success) skyrocket.
Have high expectations.
Growing up in the children’s home that my parents ran, I learned early in life that every human being is brilliant. Some of the kids were “book smart” while others were more “street smart,” and yet others could hammer out their homework and ace their tests, but all of them had something they were brilliant at.
Teaching others to be successful involves helping them identify and apply their brilliance. If you’ve hired good people and you’re willing to lead them effectively, they can accomplish everything necessary to be successful. You just need to have high expectations for your employees and provide the resources they need to meet them.
Teaching your employees to be successful requires a blend of equipping, inspiring and caring. By committing to seeing your employees’ potential and taking the steps necessary to unleash it, you can launch them on a journey that leads to incredible success for both them and your business.
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