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The skills gap requires the right leadership approach
Employers globally are struggling to fill the skills gap. To meet the unique workforce challenges of the next decade, most successful business leaders will focus on their current people instead of searching for the perfect talent.
Your team may not be at the point you need them to be, but with the right leadership approach, you can help your staff to get there.
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Value successful behaviours over individuals
When employees can see what behaviours you value, it gives them an incentive for improving their performance.
- Reflect on your top-performing employees. What are the basic behaviours that earned them your favour? For example, perhaps they always come prepared, go beyond their teammates, or pay attention to detail.
- Talk about these behaviours publicly and often. Instead of saying "be more like Jessica", your best employee, tell them to "review your work for errors, just like Jessica."
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Be clear about the path to success
On the first day, every employee wants to know how they fit in. If you don't establish behavioural expectations from the start, you allow new hires to develop less desirable behavioural patterns.
Instead, pair new staff up with your best employees to help them understand your behavioural expectations. They should think your top performers are the norm and see firsthand what it takes to thrive in your organisation.
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Make your approval accessible to everyone
Great teachers drive momentum by drawing attention to positive choices, giving high fives when they see improvements. This will result in students craving incremental improvements.
Leaders of high-growth teams should look for little things to recognise to give employees momentum. "You wrote a great memo", or "Thanks for being on time every day when your whole family is sick". These statements help your employees see that your approval is attainable, which is a stepping stone for more success.
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Offer public recognition
Recognition and praise reinforce positive behaviours. Moreover, doing so publicly increase this effect. However, in a busy work week, recognition can be forgotten.
If you don't manage to share compliments with your team or forget, take 15 minutes out of each week and consider what progress people have made that you didn't recognise publicly. Then do it at once. Send out one-sentence texts, emails, or Slack messages to acknowledge small successes.
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Proactively change poor behaviour
People will depend on you to call out poor behaviour and correct negative outcomes as a leader. That's why you shouldn't wait for poor performers to improve in their own time. Instead, you will have to change the cycle.
Proactively reach out to struggling team members and let them know which behaviours are holding them back and which will make them successful.
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IDEAS CURATED BY
Sarah Kelly's ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about humanresources with this collection
Identifying the skills needed for the future
Developing a growth mindset
Creating a culture of continuous learning
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