Fast Lane
Help them help you
How to get your employees in touch with their strengths
By Mark Scott
Smart Business Columbus | September 2009
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Jim Wyland, founder and director, WealthStone Inc.
There is very little about the business world that is safe, especially these days, but that has not stopped Jim Wyland from trying to find safe harbor for his employees at WealthStone Inc.
From what is he trying to protect his people? Well, he is trying to make sure they have forums to raise concerns and initiate discussions about what they see happening at their company.
“The really bad thing in trying to have a round-table discussion is they put people on the spot, and they hate it,” says Wyland, founder and director of the 28-employee financial planning firm. “It is all about relationships and understanding each other and having a safe place to go when you have a great idea.”
Smart Business spoke with Wyland about the various tools he uses to put his employees in a good place to use their gifts.
Q. What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in getting people engaged in your company?
Most effective leaders are focused on helping employees invest in their strengths and helping to get employees into the job that fits their natural gifts. Leaders understand what their followers’ needs are. The biggest challenge is finding people with common values who have a diversity of these strengths.
We really did not get the leverage model. The owners and the leaders of the company were starting early and leaving late and the team was starting late and leaving early. Relationship building is the key, and it is what brings teams together and it is what holds them together. We had areas that did not have empowered leaders. The areas that did have an empowered leader, they thrived. But the areas that did not have a clear leader, they just sort of floundered.
When people do not work in their strengths, the engagement is not there. You need empowered leaders to help employees find their strengths. I want to be a leader who gets to wake up every day and enjoy what he does. When the team can do that, the enjoyment factor is much higher.
Q. How does that help the business?
Once I know what my gifts are, let’s stop having me be as involved. For the people I delegated to, it was a joy. Now, I have this team that is having a lot more fun.
Now, there are going to be people in the room saying, ‘That’s for me; I want to do that. I want to take the role of leading that initiative to make it happen.’
When you get focused on your unique, natural abilities, you love doing it. When people are around you and see you when you are doing that, you feel like you are in your zone.
This translates to huge gains in the company’s bottom line because every employee’s factor is higher.
