Are you building a culture of innovation in the workplace? 🔣(4/6)

I want all my clients to be great managers. All my clients want to be great managers.

And that means that they know the difference between managing and micromanaging. In short:

• Give your employees guidance, but let them experiment as well.

It’s not about being hands-off, but rather finding that sweet spot where your team feels supported, yet challenged to push the boundaries.

The boundaries

To experiment freely, your employees need to know what the boundaries are.

Use your mission statement to give them direction

Use your guiding principles to give them standards

Use your client preferences to give them expectations.

Use your org chart to give the collaborators.

The freedom

And then invite them to make it work: in any way they see fit. 

Before

You have to make your business a safe place to experiment. “You” is the key word here.

Do you experiment in your work? Do you propose new methods or new tools? Do you share new ideas openly?

Lead by example: try, test, and reiterate wherever you can in your work.

During

Listen to anything your employees have to share. 

Ask people what they are doing and how. 

Invite them to come to you with questions and ideas.

And when you disagree, don’t shut it down: instead, ask a question about their thought process.

After

Give recognition to new ideas.

Where they worked, praise the idea and the effort, not just the result.

Where they didn’t work, praise the intent and learn from the mishap. Do better next time.

What next

What is one question you can ask your employees today to encourage them to try something new? Let’s come up with one question for each department: contact me for a consulting session.