Sam Reed says that your
employees need to know they’re good at what they do.
The president of architectural
and engineering services firm
BSA LifeStructures Inc. believes
that, too often, businesses focus
too much on the areas in which
employees need to improve and
not enough on their strengths.
And while you have to identify
and address shortcomings to
help employees reach their full
potential, Reed says you should also consistently point out ways
in which your employees are
excelling and let them know
that management wants to help
them make their strengths even
stronger.
“That is something that has
really helped us differentiate
ourselves, and it’s something
that has given our new employees the confidence to interact
with our clients,” says Reed of
his firm, which had $44.7 million in local billings last year.
Smart Business spoke with
Reed about how to keep your
employees focused and confident.
Communicate your expectations
and focus on strengths. Employees need to understand the values of the organization that
they’re a part of. If they don’t,
they’re just sort of out there in a
canoe by themselves and not
really a part of an organization
headed in a singular direction.
Second, it’s everyone understanding their strengths and
how those match up with the
strengths of others in the organization. Some organizations
might ask their people where
they need to improve and try to
help them become better at
that. Conversely, we ask what
they are good at and how can
you become great at that.
When we ask them what part
of the role they struggle with, it’s
usually because they don’t have
quite the passion as they do in an
area that they’re very good at or
great at. … If they’re not so good
in a certain role or struggling
with it, there are probably others who enjoy that, and we
encourage them to partner with
one another.
Third, it is important that
everyone understands what is
expected of them. If you are in a
role and really wondering what
is expected of you, you’re going
to take up a lot of time and
energy trying to figure that out
instead of taking care of clients.
Fourth, in any organization,
most people become satisfied in
their work if they feel and truly
believe that someone is there
who can help them be successful [and] really cares about
them. The communication and
discussions we have here really
goes a long way to showing our
people that we really do care
about them, we want them to
be successful and are providing
them with the equipment and
resources they need to be successful.
Envision success. We have
visioning sessions with our
staff about where do they see
BSA LifeStructures going, what
is the future that they personally
want to be a part of, what are
the different possibilities that
they can see. We have those
types of sessions throughout the
entire firm; we have small group
meetings of 10 to 15 people at
the most. They’re great meetings
because the staff knows their
ideas will be respected, so they
openly share their goals and
thoughts, and even I’d say they
share their dreams, not only for
themselves but for the firm.
