When selecting, interviewing, and hiring employees to work in our organization, we look at other factors and their potentials.
We select individuals not only based on their education and experience but also the individual attributes that make them unique.
Such attributes are such as their proactivity, soft skills, and their potential to achieve greater things in the future.
Once we have hired individuals with high potentials, it is part of the organization’s role to help the employee achieve their potential.
Modern organizations not only work towards achieving their goals but also to help individuals achieve their goals as well.
In this way, the organization shows care for the well-being of employees, proves it is committed to employee empowerment and this can also be one way to maintain great employees.
Knowing this, how can employers help empower employees to achieve their potentials and individual goals?
Individualized consideration
According to one of the most popular leadership styles of the 21st century transformational leadership, effective leaders not only change the organization’s future but individuals’ future.
This is achieved by empowering them and helping them achieve their goals.
One way of doing this is through individualized consideration.
To help employees achieve their potentials, it is essential to remember that they are unique individuals and treat them as such.
This calls for discussing the individual needs of each employee as an individual, finding their strengths, and helping them make the best out of themselves as an individual.
Classifying employees as one group is misleading because each individual is unique.
When we consider them as individuals, we mentor and coach them individually, and this way you can guide them to set and achieve their goals based on who they uniquely are.
Intellectual stimulation
To help employees achieve their potentials, it is essential to challenge them constructively.
Individuals are often inhibited by assumptions and ideas that limit how they think or what they think about their potentials. By intellectually stimulating them, a leader challenges these assumptions, beliefs, and ideas so that the employee can change their mindset to one which can help them achieve their potentials.
For example, a brilliant female from a conservative past can have limiting beliefs such as “a woman cannot excel in this field”.
We can challenge this belief and show this person that they can achieve whatever they set their minds to.
Challenging such beliefs and encouraging this person to take risks and bring out more of their ideas can help them achieve their potentials.
Delegate and support
We can empower employees by a proper delegation of tasks.
When we spot that an employee is talented in certain areas, we can delegate work in this area to them so that they can develop their skills.
Delegation best works when it is accompanied by the support so that this individual does not feel overwhelmed by new responsibilities.
For example, an employee exhibiting commendable leadership skills can be delegated to run a team and receive support and advice from the team leader.
This way, they learn through the process and help strengthen their skills and potentials.
Provide resources
When we recognize an employee’s potentials, it is important to provide resources to help them enhance skills and knowledge in their areas of interest.
For example, when we spot an employee with leadership potentials, we can sponsor them for leadership development courses, leadership-related degrees or diplomas, or even mentorship programs.
We can also organize in-house training on certain skills so that employees can recognize areas in which their potentials lie and work towards achieving their potentials.
Provide constructive feedback
By providing constructive feedback, we help and empower employees to know their strengths and weaknesses and how they can improve.
Feedback is an essential component of a communication process as it helps individuals know what they did right, what they did wrong, and how they can improve.
For example, after a presentation, we can give feedback to an employee.
We can state that while they were able to properly articulate their arguments, they can improve their communication such that they went straight to the point and did not take too long to explain.
This kind of feedback can help them improve their communication skills and make them excellent presenters, an essential skill for a leader and manager.
Create a nurturing work culture
Even employees with the highest potentials cannot thrive in a work culture that stifles their desire to express their ideas and opinions.
To empower employees, it is essential to create a culture that does not stifle free-thinkers, punish people who speak out, or turn down people who bring up ideas and express their opinions.
By creating a nurturing and open-minded work culture, we encourage employees to get creative, share ideas, express opinions and this is how we help them achieve their potentials.
Employees get to know what they are good at and are not afraid to explore their areas of strength.
Conclusively, empowered employees not only achieve their potentials but are the best instruments to help organizations achieve their goals. Such employees easily accept and adapt to change, require minimal supervision, are committed to the organization and work to achieve not only their goals but organizational goals.
The Destiny Team