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Companies are seeking ways to make
sure they have the talent they will need to compete now and in the future.
Increasingly, companies are finding that the best way to prepare for the
future is to leverage talent -- capitalizing on and enhancing the skills of
their workforces. Securing and retaining the right skills and competencies
is fundamental to the growth and vitality of any organization. By
discovering what talent lies within the company, and by allowing creativity
and innovation to expand these capabilities in-house, organizations gain
ready talent and a motivated and energized workforce.
It takes a special manager to refine and unleash talent. Getting
the best out of workers and helping them to achieve their full potential is
an indication of how individuals are treated, inspired, and challenged.
Managers must also provide the necessary support, resources, and guidance to
help employees cultivate and enhance their skills and competencies.
Changing Role of Managers
To be effective, today’s managers must create supportive
work environments that influence desired behaviors and outcomes. This means
applying a new set of management practices that takes into account these new
ways of doing business. Today’s managers need to do four things: energize,
empower, support, and communicate.
1. Energize.
The best managers are masters of
making things happen. They create far more energy than they consume and,
instead of taking energy from an organization, they channel and amplify it
back to the organization. Successful managers create compelling visions for
their employees to strive for, and then they get out of the way.
In the words of Harold A. Poling, former chairman and CEO of Ford
Motor Company: ‘One stepping stone to a world-class organization is to tap
into the creative and intellectual power of each employee.” Encouraging
employees to be creative will motivate them to voluntarily seek new ways to
address and solve problems. Progressive organizations find ways to give
their employees the time, support, and tools they need to stimulate creative
thinking.
At the 3M Company, staff members whose ideas are given the nod by
management build their own businesses within the company. Those who succeed
are given promotions and pay raises. There is no penalty for those who fail.
2. Empower. Great managers allow their employees to do great work.
They delegate responsibility and the authority necessary to get a job done.
Not even the world’s greatest managers can succeed by themselves. To achieve
their goals, managers depend on the skills that their employees offer.
Empowerment -- giving employees the responsibility and the authority to get
things done their way -- can unleash tremendous amounts of worker energy.
Employees want to feel that they are trusted and valued. Nothing pumps up an
employee’s energy more quickly or completely than when he or she is
supported for showing personal initiative or calculated risk-taking. Smart
business people know that it makes sense to empower their workers, even if
they make a mistake or two.
At Chaparral Steel in Texas, workers are entrusted with
extraordinary freedom to use company money and resources to improve work
processes.
3. Support.
Increasingly, managers are becoming coaches, colleagues, and cheerleaders
for the employees they support rather than prison wardens or executioners.
The best managers allow their employees to make mistakes or to disagree with
no fear of retribution. |
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The best
organization realizes that providing employees with opportunities to learn
pays dividends for both the organization and the employees. The organization
gets better-skilled workers who are more versatile and flexible in their
assignments, and employees get the opportunity to learn new skills, gain new
ways of viewing the world, and meet and network with co-workers.
Training employees helps organizations make sure they have the
talent they need now and into the future. While some programs are highly
structured, others allow employees to identify their own needs, based on
their own goals and aspirations.
4. Communicate. We have seen
firsthand the positive effects on businesses where workers and managers
communicate frequently and honestly. Information is power and, as
the speed of business accelerates, information must be communicated quickly.
The workplace is full of opportunities. Ask people what they want
to do, and pair them with the right people and positions.
In his book Post Capitalist Society, Peter Drucker states that each
employee must be asked: “What should we hold you accountable for? What
information do you need? And, what information do you owe the rest of us?
Each worker has to participate in deciding how the work should be done,
indeed what the basic policy of the company should be.” Communication is the
key to unlocking employee potential and cultivating talent.
Communicating openly reinforces an organization’s belief in its
people. At General Electric, roll-up-your-sleeves, interactive sessions
reinforce the informality and atmosphere of trust and camaraderie -- and
encourage employees to open their minds and challenge themselves.
Management is about what one does with employees, not to them. To
leverage the talent you have -- and to make sure you have the talent you
will need in the future -- today’s managers must create supportive work
environments that foster employee creativity and innovation. Communicating,
supporting, energizing, and training employees will give organizations the
competitive edge they need to succeed.
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