A company’s success heavily relies on having a strong, motivated team. However, accomplishing this requires more than just hiring qualified people. It demands that business leaders take an active interest in understanding their employees on a deeper level. According to Teresa Meares, founder of TM Consulting, truly comprehending employees’ experiences, goals, and motivations is the foundation for retaining top talent.
Get To Know Your Team Members
Teresa’s first tip for building a robust team is to become familiar with everyone’s background. She advises, “Get to know your team. Understand who works for you and what their experiences are, what their goals are, and what drives them.”
It’s easy to pigeonhole employees into certain roles without looking at their full potential. Teresa cautions against this, saying, “I’ve often found that people take jobs sometimes to make ends meet if they got laid off from a corporate job, and they may bring 20 years of experience in HR, marketing, technology, and we sometimes forget to learn about a person.”
Valuable skills and knowledge can be uncovered when leaders take time to understand an employee’s career experiences. Teresa notes, “If somebody’s doing an hourly job, sometimes we think that’s just their skill set, but they may be highly educated and highly experienced. You can utilize that experience and then you will show them that you value their input.”
Align Roles with Employee Strengths
With an understanding of employees’ backgrounds, Teresa advises making sure everyone is in a role that aligns with their strengths. She explains, “Once you understand who your team members are, make sure they’re in the right seat. If an employee is in a seat that is not really their strength as a leader, you’re able to identify that as you learn more about them and speak with them.”
Proper role placement benefits both the employee and the company. Teresa goes on to add, “Then when you can put them in a position that really plays to their strengths but allows them to also improve or learn other things that they may be weak in, that’s very valuable.”
Build Trust Through Honest Feedback
Knowing employees on a deeper level allows leaders to build trust. With trust comes the ability to provide constructive feedback that motivates rather than discourages.
Teresa notes, “Once you’ve learned about them and they understand that they have feedback and that you care, then you have built trust. When you build trust with an employee, you can give them feedback.”
Trust also enables employees to receive feedback without offense. As Teresa explains, “When you’ve created that relationship of trust, they know that you’re coming at them as a leader, as a communicator, as someone who can mentor them, and you can give them positive and negative feedback, and it usually will end in a more motivating conversation.”
For Teresa, motivation is the key. She states, “They should always leave your office or a meeting motivated no matter what they did right or wrong. They should always leave motivated, and if they do, you just accomplished tip one and two.”
Encourage Collaboration For Fresh Ideas
Finally, Teresa stresses the importance of collaboration with employees. Their insights can be invaluable when launching new initiatives.
“Allow your team to participate in team functions. Allow them to participate in providing you feedback if you’re creating a new product, if you’re going to market, if you’re planning something, developing new technology. You need to have everyone’s input to understand how best to approach the solution,” Teresa advises.
Though not every idea may be viable, validation keeps motivation high. Teresa suggests, “Thank you for your idea. Here are some of the reasons why we can’t do that now, but your input was very valuable. It’s a very simple thing to do.”
By implementing these tips, leaders can assemble motivated teams that drive results. To learn more about effective leadership, visit Teresa’s website and consider her book, One C.A.R.E. at a Time. With the right knowledge and approach, any company can foster an environment where employees feel valued, empowered, and invested in collective success.
To learn more about Teresa Meares, check out her LinkedIn profile.
