You may be the best boss around in terms of behavior, sense of humor and sense of time, but you just may not have that capability to make others work without annoying them. You may just not know how to bring out the best in your people. No matter how charming a personality you are and how many times have you been nominated the best boss in your unit, it’s a completely different mechanism that makes people work. The trick is not simple for sure, but it’s inevitable if you want to make your people productive, efficient and meet the goals that your department has promised. 

So, what should you do to bring out the best in your people? Is there any secret? Well, there may not be any secrets but there are certainly some techniques, no matter how typical might they sound or how clichéd they are, always come handy. Following are some advices on how to bring out the best in your people:

Ø Put a smile on your face whenever you are assigning someone some work. It must never sound like an order to the submissive from the superior. Moreover, make the conversation in such a manner as if you are assigning a task to a peer with same designation, knowledge and know how. It will make them feel good and they will neither feel under or overestimated. One thing you should remember here, no matter how much smiling you are, always keep your boundaries and make very clear to what extent your subordinate is allowed to go.

Ø Let people know who is the boss? This is a must in order to keep hold of the leadership position. In order to be friendly with your subordinates, if you forget to do your duty, that will not get the job done for neither you nor your company. Then again, remember to click a smile where necessary. There will be scenarios where a smile is not deserved by the peer. For example, if someone was assigned a specific task and failed to do so, the first time he/she is receiving feedback, be encouraging and let them know where they are going wrong. But if this happens more than once then it is not something that should be tolerated for greater good. So what should you do then? Keep on smiling no matter what? Of course you need to behave well, no doubt about that, but you also need to let the responsible realize that what he/she has been performing is not desirable and he/she should receive consequences for that.

Ø We all know very well how boring structural office work can become sometimes, especially if the job is monotonous in nature. Such type of job is bound to take your attention off and makes your imagination wander around. Exactly the same happens to your peers and subordinates. So, in such case, how would you bring out the best in your people? Well, one thing that is certainly effective and has boosted energy in many is occasional recreations. It may be picnics once a year, or movies with all other colleagues on weekends, or you people may have a get together at your lunch time in the office/out of office. You can also celebrate someone’s success (for example, mere success like someone has become the employee of the month) during coffee or tea breaks. All these can be very much boosting the good spirits in people. They open themselves up and put out the best in themselves.

Ø  The method of reinforcement is always effective. If there is a system of positive reinforcements like recognition (bonus etc) for good work or extraordinary contribution and negative reinforcements like workshop for underperformers, danger label for underachievers then your subordinates are bound to make proper contribution. In this regard, you must make one thing very clear in order to bring out the best in your people- make everything-the entire evaluation and reinforcing system very transparent and neutral. If you miss out any of these even accidentally then people will gradually stop respecting you or your orders.

 These are some of the points that we usually remember or grow accustomed to as we gradually mesh with the corporate culture. But then again, there are many loopholes that let us go wrong. Plus, all day stress often makes us fatigued and we cannot work out even the thing that’s in front of us as to why my team is not giving its best. Abide by the above tricks, you are sure to bring out the best in your people.

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