Dale Carnegie of Orange County | Improving Leadership Effectiveness

13 Ways to Motivate Key Employees to Become Leaders

Developing future leaders to manage complex changes coming our way is a crucial part of building a sustainable business. These leaders will be able to face the challenges of tomorrow and be your business’ security for future success.

The goal is to develop a process in which executives can more easily identify high-potential employees and quickly place them into the new leadership roles as they become available. As experts in employee development, we know that an engaged team significantly improves the chances of these future leaders to be successful in their role.

Below are the top 13 employee engagement methods based on Dale Carnegie research studies to drive productivity and successfully evolve your high potential employees into your new leadership.

13 Methods to Best Engage Employees to Become Leaders

1. Treat employees as “valuable people” with skills, rather than people with “valuable skills”

The manager’s ability to build strong employee relationships, team interaction and lead in a person-centered way creates an engaging environment in which employees can perform at the highest possible level.

2. Identify Individual Talents

As a leader, it is best practice to determine how each team member complements one another. This way when they are completing different tasks, they will have a team spirit and you will be able to foster better teamwork.

3. Get to Know Your Employees on a Personal Level

If you have a personal relationship with your team members, they will feel more connected to the organization. We find that 66% of employees believe that their managers do not care about their personal lives. So this is a low hanging fruit to tackle tomorrow!

4. Create a Sense of Ownership

Employees who connect emotionally with an organization feel a sense of ownership and are more likely to stay with the company, enabling them to deliver superior work in less time and reducing turnover cost.

5. Create a Sense of Purpose

Workers need to feel that what they do is meaningful and that they work for a successful company. If you can create a sense of purpose in their role, they will be far more engaged in doing said work.

6. Empower Your Employees

65% of employees who say they are satisfied with the amount of input they have in decisions affecting their work are also considered engaged at work. This is no coincidence!

7. Communicate the Organization’s State and Goals

Employees need to feel that they belong to a community that shares their values. When employees see the organizational behavior align with their values, they are far more engaged.

8. Build Pride in the Organization

Having pride in the company and a positive workplace environment energize people; they look forward to going to work. This is also a great way to get them involved in the recruitment of new employees, as they are proud of the place they work.

9. Praise Employee Improvements

Praise will help build your employee’s self-confidence and motivate them to continue to work on themselves. Similarly, when you praise one employee, the others will feel the need to live up to that new standard.

10. Give the Employees Feedback

Employees, especially millennials, want to build new skills and constantly improve as professionals. On top of providing praise, be sure also to provide them with feedback so they have a goal to work towards.

11. Encourage Employees to Improve

Similar to praise and feedback, employees need to be encouraged to improve. 53% of fully engaged employees say they learned a lot from their supervisors. It helps them get into that leadership mindset!

12. Listen to Employees’ Opinions

When an organization encourages open and honest communication, employees feel more engaged. They will also welcome the opportunity to share concerns and work together to find solutions. Two traits that are crucial for new leaders!  

13. Provide Coaching and Training

Investing in internal or external training programs is another way to increase engagement. One way to achieve this is by providing your employees the opportunity to develop new skills and grow with customized Dale Carnegie leadership training!

 

Discover Dale Carnegie Leadership Training

These proven employee engagement principles have already helped thousands of businesses motivate their key employees to become skilled leaders.

Learn how we can help your organization do the same by visiting our website.

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