If you want to recruit, retain and leverage the skills and talents of brilliant employees, you need to provide a workplace where people love to come to work. Employers that treat their employees like recalcitrant children, micromanage and demonstrate their distrust of them will not only lose good people to their competition but will eventually end up miserable, broke and obsolete. If your employees enjoy what they do and feel part of a workplace community, they will be more enthusiastic, creative and empowered to be more successful.

Don’t wait until your best people leave before you assess your strengths, and challenges and realize you need to make some attitude and cultural changes.

Here are some ways you can start now:

Review your mission, vision and values. There is a strong probability that you have become complacent due to the economic turmoil and have reduced your line of sight.
Renew your passion for your business and what you do, and allow others to see it. Passion can be contagious and you want everyone else in your organization to feel it. Recognize when your employees are passionate about what they do.
Take an interest in your employees beyond their title and function. Talk to them about their lives after work and find new ways to connect and develop relationships with them.
Give employees opportunities to contribute and use their talents in new ways and other areas of work. Be on the look-out for hidden genius or unseen skills.
Lay-out problems and challenges and ask for solutions. Acknowledge and reward ideas that solve those problems and/or move your organization forward.
Create programs and processes to discover high potential employees at all levels of your organization who may not have been visible or did not fit your standard profile.
Encourage risk taking and reward people who take failures and turn them into successes. Resist the temptation to micromanage. The need to micromanage is a result of your insecurity, not their incompetence.
Develop systems of accountability at all levels and use those systems continuously. Ask your employees what they need in order to be more successful.
If you find yourself getting cynical or impatient, take a break. Go to a movie, read a book, or take a walk.
List what you appreciate about your overall business, and customers and specific employees.

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Simma LiebermanAbout Simma…

Simma helps organizations create more profitable cultures and improve individual and organizational performance. She is a consultant, speaker, and trainer. Simma is the co-author of Putting Diversity to Work (Crisp Publications, 2003), a guide for managers on leading a diverse workforce. Simma is often called “The Inclusionist” because of her ability to improve communication amongst people who are different.

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