Page 141 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

112 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

and empowered. If you cannot fulfill the request, let the
employee know why and what you are able to do instead.
3. Promote more cross-training. Set a goal that each team
member must be fully cross-trained in at least one other job
in six months. Within obvious boundaries, allow employees
to select the training.
4. Brown-bag lunches. Once a month, hold a brown-bag
lunch and ask a leader from another department to come and
share information with your team. For example, you might
invite the CFO to come and give a thirty-minute overview of
company financials and have him or her show how the num-
bers from your department impact the whole company.
5. Create task forces to analyze processes and poli-
cies. Ask for volunteers to form a subcommittee to review
and make suggestions on eliminating or revising current
policies and procedures that unnecessarily detract from
employee productivity.
6. Turn team members into coaches. Foster a culture
where employees coach and develop one another. Ask your
human resources department to support your effort by hold-
ing a workshop to teach employees basic skills in giving con-
structive feedback. As the supervisor, make sure to recognize
and acknowledge the team members who provide the great-
est support to others. By the way, these are also the team
members who should be identified as potential supervisors.
7. Create learning opportunities. Assign tasks to team
members that serve as learning opportunities. Pre sent
employees with a menu of possible tasks and allow them to
choose.
8. Encourage autonomy. Ask each employee to identify
decisions that currently require approval by others and relin-
quish as much decision-making authority as possible.