If you were the boss, how would you get your employees to take initiatives.Being in an enterprise where there is no real management structure, these initiatives are essentials to boost the productivity. But initiatives being what they are, they sometimes go against company policies. It then becomes really hard for an employee without any real power to express such initiatives easily.
Maybe you don't have the kind of management structure that we have (none whatsoever) but if you want to get your employees to show leadership and take initiatives, here is how I would do it:
- Find out what they are good at
- Give them a mission
- Make that mission official
- Give them time
- Empower them
Find out what they are good at
This is simple common sense. Don't expect someone with poor social skills to organize your next christmas party. Try to find what is the skill you want the company to benefit from and exploit it.Give them a mission
Once you found that out, send him/her on a mission. A small, manageable one, but still important to the company. Fine-tuning a critical piece of software, redesigning a part of your website, organizing the next big social event for example.Make that mission official
Communicate to the others what you just asked your employee to do. Explain the task and ask everyone to help out in any way they can.Give them time
Don't push. You can ask for a timetable, or do a quick follow-up once in a while, but let your people enough room to be creative about the solution they are going to implement. Show them total confidence in their ability to solve that problem.Empower them
Once the mission is complete, congratulate him/her publicly. Show your appreciation of the work that has been done and aknowledge the team effort. From then on, every time you or your company profit in any way from the work done, congratulate your employee again. Tell him/her something like this:You did a good job. From now on, no need to ask me permission to do something like that again. Consider that you have my blessing and take company time if you feel the company would benefit from it.But now you must ask yourself: "How can this be initiative if I was there to hold their hand every step of the way?". The answer is simple, you have to show them how it's done. You cannot show someone how to run before showing him how to walk. With time, your employees will want to make a difference, they will feel that they are a part of the solution, not just a tool.
This is how I would do it anyway...
