Management of employees initiative

Every employee who has at least a little ambition wants to get the coveted “promotion” sooner or later and change their status in the company for the better. This is due not only to a bright financial future but also to the opening prospects in the field of authority, knowledge, and abilities. If the status of an employee in the organization does not correspond to his potential hidden capabilities, then we hasten to please you: this is the main control lever that will allow you to manage an employee.

Not only careerism plays a role here, but also to some extent a banal struggle for existence: it is characteristic of a person to try to be better, stronger, or smarter only for the sake of his comfortable life. All a manager needs to do is to identify such a desire and direct the initiative to develop in the right direction for a particular company. And this, oddly enough, is usually the most difficult.

Why does the owner need a business?

The management of the initiative comes from the “top” – the owner. He has two main responsibilities that are not subject to delegation (unlike everything else). This is the choice of a goal and its setting. Without clear prospects and visions of the future of the company, it is impossible to effectively use the initiative of employees. In other words, it is necessary to clearly understand why the owner should start the whole epic with an initiative and what result he ultimately strives for.

The main thing that the owner must determine is what he wants from the company. Any employee, starting from a top manager and ending with a simple clerk, should understand what the main mission of the company is. If this message reaches the goal promptly, making the way from the “top” to the “bottom”, then part of the way has already been successfully passed: employees can finally take the initiative in really important aspects.

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Source: Unsplash.com, the initiative of employees

In addition, awareness of the mission of the entire company allows you to open a personal mission: the employee will present what he wants, how he plans to realize himself, and what his interests and desires are. The manager should notice this and see which employee is more disposed to something than others. Now it is necessary to collect all the “bricks” (the skills of employees) and build a strong “house” (an effective team) out of them. It will be easier to do this when employees feel the previously hidden motivation, and awakened intentions and show maximum initiative in the overall development of the company.

Does the company need proactive employees and what to do with them?

The most dangerous thing that can happen to an employee is the loss of meaning in their duties. Fatigue and unwillingness to work arise not from workload or routine, but from the fact that the company’s employees simply do not see the significance of their actions and do not want to do anything. Therefore, proactive employees are good, especially since it shows that your company has clear goals that satisfy everyone. And yet, the manager may face some dangers that lie in the manifestation of an initiative by employees. Frequent reflection on “what I’m working for” can lead to a divergence in the directions of his and the “ship”. This is what makes managers look for working and proven ways to manage the initiative in a team.

Creating conditions for the initiative

So, we found out that initiative is an important quality of employees when it comes to the desire of the company to develop further. At the same time, motivated employees who take the initiative on their own, due to their life position, are quite rare. And the manager has a new task – to create conditions for the manifestation of the initiative.

First of all, you need to prepare the ground: the employee must feel safe and understand that there will be no unpleasant consequences after the initiative is taken. Punishability of an initiative, even if it is useless for the company, is the wrong strategy. Instead, it is better to encourage really useful actions of the employee.

Source: Unsplash.com, good conditions at work

Money can also be the first factor that will create the conditions for the initiative. A financial interest is an excellent engine of progress, but you should not lean on this lever: when an employee is motivated only by money, there is a risk that he will easily part with your company for a higher salary elsewhere. Monetary stimulation should be supported by corporate culture and an understanding of the company’s values.

Allow the employee to feel the trust of the manager. If an employee has the necessary knowledge and authority to perform an unusual duty, then feel free to delegate it. Awareness of their benefits for the whole company leads to an increase in the employee’s self-esteem, which means that he sees his importance and is ready to work even harder for the benefit of the company.

5 tools for managing an initiative in a company

When your company is filled with initiative and motivated employees, the question arises: how to effectively and accurately manage this huge number of opportunities? After all, there are two sides to the coin, and in inept hands, the initiative of employees may turn out to be not only useless but even harmful. So what methods do modern managers use to direct employee initiatives in the right direction? For successful management of the initiative, 5 effective ways are recommended:

Setting up communication

Let the people in your company communicate their ideas and suggestions to you. Let it take place, for example, in the form of a flyer, where the best ideas with the right motivation will be selected. It remains to appoint a person responsible for the implementation of the proposal, and allocate resources – and that’s it, the idea has been “earned”. The practice of such round tables in the future will lead to the fact that worthy offers will fall right on your table and you will get access to an infinite number of interesting offers.

Source: Unsplash.com, communication at work

Horizontal rotation

At first, this method terrifies many managers, but over time, everyone somehow recognizes its effectiveness. Just reorient your employees! Send an accountant to marketing, and let the production department become a sales department for a while. This method is very popular in Japan, a country of workaholics, where even government officials are required to change their positions annually.

Corporate culture

Awareness of your corporate culture is of no small importance. It is necessary to understand that only the coincidence of the company’s value system with the mission defined by the owner is the true path to success. To set up and introduce the traditions of corporate culture, there are old as the world, but very effective ways: the work of interest clubs within the company, the creation of a corporate newspaper, and trips to joint events.

Implementation of project management

An ordinary secretary working in a company can turn out to be a much more valuable employee if you see hidden professional opportunities in time. Try to expand his job responsibilities – and you will be surprised at how quickly an employee motivated in this way can develop.

World practices: “The boss goes to the people” and “A free chair on the Board of Directors”

Do not be afraid of the already well-known tried world practices: if they are popular and talked about, then most likely they work.

What should top and initiative employees do?

Companies come in different sizes. In small firms, the situation is extremely simple: the head can leave his office, walk around the office, and communicate with his employees, thereby establishing contacts and maintaining the initiative.

It is much more difficult to work with companies of 1, 5-2 thousand people: how to cope with so many people? In this case, the classic tools already listed above come to the rescue. With the experience of using it, an understanding of the mechanisms of the toolkit will come, and you will be able to independently detail and disclose the proposed ways of managing the initiative concerning your specific company.

The main thing for a top manager is to be attentive. Organizing, for example, a joint event, course, or training for a team, you need to monitor the establishment of connections: employees should share goals and dreams. This technique promotes the development of initiative within the team and, in addition, creates a corporate spirit in the company.

Proactive employees are a “resource” that not only young companies need, but also experienced market participants. An employee aimed at a successful career should develop the quality of initiative because it will become the main competitive advantage and promises good prospects. Working in a large company, it is important to be able to find a balance between your initiative, the overall mission of the company, and the team. This guarantees the employee that he will remain visible and at the same time will be the same member of the team on an equal basis with others.

The benefits of employee initiative are obvious. Everyone who is distinguished by such a quality, ultimately, embodies their dreams and goals, and realizes their ambitions. The task of a real top manager is to make sure that these goals and ambitions coincide with the goals and ambitions of the entire company. You can do this by adopting the tools described in the previous section. When your employees see that their initiative has been useful to the company, their moral satisfaction will be an excellent motivation for new exploits in the company. Initiative management is a modern way to the success of any company.

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