In this second episode in a series of four discussing how to successfully retain your top talented employees, we are focusing on empowerment. Empowering your employees to actually do their job is one of the keys to creating loyalty within your team.
Have you ever been in a position where you were hired for a job, paid to do a job, but then no one actually allowed you to do it? Maybe not. Or if you have ever been in that situation, you probably didn’t stay there for long.
It all goes back to that hero mentality we talked about yesterday. We are all heroes in our own stories, creating a life we want to be proud to live. We want to work hard, overcome issues standing in our way, and at the end of the day, be victorious. Right? To do that in the workplace, we have to be allowed to perform the functions of a hero.
If you go into work, have conversations with your teams, and agree on a project for example, but then someone changes it upon you, or answers the questions that should have been directed to you, or simply takes away any responsibility you have on the project, how are you going to feel? Most people get extremely frustrated. Why? Because it’s like being a kid again when you lost privileges you were never given a chance to prove you could handle in the first place.
No one wants to fail at being the hero in their own story. So if we take away someone’s ability to do their job, or their chance to prove themselves successful, we have removed their ability to be victorious. Top talented individuals won’t stay around for that. They want an environment where they can live out their hero role, where they can be contributors, where they can feel fulfilled while contributing to the company.
No doubt, the reason you hired them is that they truly are a hero. They have the talent, the brains, the skills, and the drive to move your business forward. So don’t hold them back!
If you are a business owner, no doubt you started your business because you didn’t want people to take away your ability to do your job! You said to yourself, “This is mine, I’m not going to be at the whim of someone else’s decisions, I’m going to be my own boss!” If that’s you, you can easily identify with the fact that empowerment drives loyalty.
So in order to increase the loyalty within your ranks, do the simplest task of all. Let them do their jobs. Let them do the work you hired them to do. Allow them the ability to perform and be successful, or perform and fail and have you guiding them on how to become successful again. When you allow someone to grow and be personally fulfilled, they will be loyal to you for giving them that opportunity. And they will be loyal in the fact that there is no reason for them to leave. If they are fulfilled, nothing is lacking. They are doing the work they set out to do.
Today I want you to do another gut check. Are you taking away someone’s ability to perform the responsibilities you hired them for? Are you preventing them from being the hero in their own story? If yes, find a way to start empowering those talented employees. If you don’t, they will leave for a company that does allow them to contribute, feel fulfilled, and be their own hero.
Be Legendary!