“Does your daughter use proper cutlery at home?” my daughters preschool teacher pulled me aside to ask. “No, she has plastic cutlery”. The teacher handed me a child-sized set of metal cutlery and said let her practice with these at home.
Oh, the shame!
I’d been holding back my daughter’s development and I never even realised it! I’d love to tell you that this was the only time, but there have been other instances when my children have come home with new life skills that I hadn’t realised they were ready to develop.
The same applies to your teams, getting your team to take on increased responsibility and ownership for the outcomes that you require means that you need to open up opportunities for your team members to develop like my client Alice who was struggling to focus on building her business because she was caught up trying to get the day to day things completed.
Her company mobile phone would not stop ringing, as her managers referred any difficult customers to her rather than dealing with them themselves, this meant that the majority of her customers had her number and would just call to speak with Alice rather than talk to the manager for their relevant store.
At first, I thought that the manager's job descriptions would need updating but all the things they were supposed to be doing were written in there, they’d just never been required to deliver. So, we updated the manager's objectives. delivered our signature Management Fundamentals course and implemented regular peer coaching sessions so that the managers could learn from each other.
Alice also changed her mobile number so that customers could only contact their relevant store or head office. It made all the difference, the manager’s stepped up and Alice was able to focus on developing new products and opening new stores.
If you are struggling to get your team to take ownership, try the following:
1. Encourage your team to focus on the outcome rather than the method. Give your team the freedom to try new things and implement changes, so long as the desired outcome can be achieved.
2. Ask questions rather than giving a solution. Try coaching your team members through the problem, so that they can work out the best resolution and build their confidence.
3. Provide training to support. Make sure your team members are building the skills that they need to be successful.
4. Create process manuals (with your team) so their reference tool isn’t you. It's important that the key processes that happen in your business are documented, so that you can train your new team members and existing teams members have a reference tool.
Let us know which changes you’ll be implementing to empower your team in the comments and grab our FREE guide to Hiring to make sure you hire the right person.