Tim Hebert
Management Services Committee Member
A&W Electric, Inc.

As managers and leaders, we all want our team to be successful. In fact, creating a path they can follow to their own success is one of our most important roles as leaders. Making sure all have the opportunity to be successful has several benefits:

• Harnesses the power of the entire team
• Spreads the work of success across many people
• Leads to tremendous buy-in among our team
• Creates growth opportunities for top performers

How can we create a path for people’s success? More than anything, most surveys indicate that what employees most desire are clear expectations, resources to accomplish the goal and feedback that is clear, concise and immediate. Easy . . . right? Well, maybe not so much.

But there are some things employers can do to make it easier:

1. Does each employee have a clear understanding of their role in the company and how critical their performance is to the department or company’s overall success?
2. Can that success be measured by 3-5 results that are measurable, easy to access and easy to understand?
3. Do supervisory and management intervene quickly when these numbers are not where they need to be?
4. Does your company operate in teams that are small enough, so team leaders are able to provide immediate, honest and clear feedback and coaching?
5. Does the team member have the training, resources and support to accomplish the 3-5 key numbers?

There are no easy solutions to enabling the success of our team members. However, with clear company objectives broken down into focused and manageable activities that can be easily measured, you can go a long way toward creating a path to success for those who want it and are willing to put forth the effort. Good Luck!