Underutilized talent costs you time and money. It slows down their professional growth and restrains your business’s competitive edge. The edge needed to be innovative, stand out in your industry, and serve clients well.
Encouraging your team to add value is a mutually beneficial practice. It enhances the value of your team, improves the client experience, reduces operational costs, and can increase revenue.
I encourage you to view your team as your competitive advantage. How can you work together to leverage each position, skills, experience, interests, and goals to grow the business?
Here are 5 questions to get you started:
- What opportunities do they see for improvement in their daily work?
- What skills can they develop to increase their value?
- What ideas + solutions do they have for recurring client pain points?
- What are gaps in industry they notice that can be leveraged?
- What new businesses have they discovered that would align with and benefit the business?
When “adding value” is a part of your culture it reinforces a sense of purpose. It challenges them to stretch their capabilities and seek out opportunities.
Recognizing their contributions makes them feel heard and appreciated.
Empowering them to take the lead enables ownership for executing ideas and solutions.
Compensate them when ideas and solutions create a positive impact on the business. Depending on the size of the impact the reward could be a bonus, gift card, or pay increase. The important part is to correlate the reward to the effort and outcome.
I’m a big advocate for paying people well….when they earn it, by creating or adding value.
Rewarding your team
Want to leverage the talent on your team? Let’s chat!