Behavior Skills To Develop In Your Employees
Copyright Reserved: London College For International Studies (LCIS)
TOP 7 BEHAVIOUR SKILLS TO DEVELOP IN YOUR EMPLOYEES
January 1, 2022
CRUCIAL SKILLS BLOG
BEHAVIOURAL SKILLS TRAINING, INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
The one mistake that most employers make when hiring employees is setting their expectations high. As an employer, you shouldn’t expect that the employees you hire will be completely trained when they join your organization. Their growth depends upon the kind of environment and leaders they get at their workplace. So, you should aim at establishing a workplace that encourages the free flow of ideas, stimulates employees’ productivity and creativity, and inspires them to be innovative. When your employees grow and succeed, the organization automatically benefits. When you’re selecting your team or even new employees to join your organization, the main focus should be on bringing in the right kind of people. Make sure you don’t just concentrate on getting people with the right skills. Once you get the people you can always encourage them to take behaviour skills training and as leaders, you can take the crucial conversations training program. The people you hire should be able to use their interpersonal communication skills in various settings and come up with the most innovative and interesting solutions.
GIVEN BELOW ARE 7 BEHAVIOUR SKILLS AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS THAT SHOULD BE THE MAIN FOCUS WHILE ESTABLISHING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CULTURE.
1. COMMUNICATION
Communication is the first and most important skill. Whether it is behaviour skills training or crucial conversations training program, communication is the first skill that needs to be strengthened. It is so broad, but communication plays a pivotal role when employees work in a team. They must adapt to the culture set by the employer.
Clear communication forms the basis for establishing a strong work culture. Use of technology is always a benefit for improving communication channels between employees and management. Some software platforms have built-in features that allow employees to work in teams in an effective manner. By using these apps and platforms employees can track project progress and ensure that communication is shared with everyone on the team.
One such effective platform is Asana. It is helpful in assigning and coordinating tasks. Managers can clearly see what all the teams are working on and track deadlines and progress using this software. Employees can ask questions, request for feedback, clear their queries and doubts, and attach files. You can add followers to the relevant task and even get notifications through email. Using such software the communication between managers and employees becomes a lot easier and transparent. It is also more organized as all the information regarding the project remains in one place.
A study was conducted in a foreign university and it was concluded that qualities like the level of ambiguity and autonomy have been observed to be directly related to the overall personality of the workplace. Therefore, everyone must be informed about the type of workplace they are situated in. For example – employers should continually encourage their employees to ask doubts about the project if they have any. They should also feel free to ask about whatever they don’t understand.
Being receptive and open to questions in this way ensures that employees don’t hesitate before asking questions or even when sharing their feedback and ideas. It clears misconceptions and supports employees to take initiative in comprehending their contribution to the organization. It also improved communication on both ends.
2. CONFLICT RESOLUTION
When so many people work at one place it is inevitable to have conflicts. The objective is to have a team that can confront issues and tensions between them and resolves them in a favorable manner. Behaviour training helps employees in conflict management skills. Although conflict management is a part of good communication but developing conflict resolution skills can be hard due to hesitation and the intimate nature of a workplace.
The worst thing that can be done is ignoring these conflicts. At one point they’ll blow out of proportion and then it’ll be a lot more difficult to handle the situation. It might damage relationships, break trust, and hamper the productivity of individuals. As an employer, you must be aware of potential conflicts and take an active part in entering and facilitating these interactions.
One way to accomplish conflict resolution is through providing continuous feedback. Send out pulse surveys regularly throughout the project to gauge employees’ mood. Track these results and check whether the progress is on track. Also, assess for loopholes and changes that may be needed. Give feedback in a polite but firm manner. Ask for opinions on things that can be done to improve workplace culture and environment.
3. MAINTAIN WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Gone are the times when employers used to push employees to spend more time at work. Nowadays leaders and coaches encourage their team and employees to strike a work-life balance. Pressurizing your team to do extra may only cause adverse effects. Mental and physical fatigue will only lower their overall efficiency and productivity. Cultivate an environment of balance and encourage employees to be self-aware of their limits and health to be most efficient while working.
This conducive environment can be created when you tell them not to take the office work and pressure at home. Keeping personal and professional life separate is so important. Try restricting work-related calls and emails during work hours itself. Inspire your employees to put their 100% during work hours and allow them to focus on their personal life as well.
Implementing a flexible work schedule is a great way to help employees maintain work-life balance. A lot of organizations these days don’t have the usual 9 to 5 working hours. Instead, employees are given deadlines and due dates and they can schedule their work accordingly. The aim is that as long as they meet deadlines and complete their work, they can choose how they want to spend their time.
Behaviour skills training helps leaders in various ways and it also teaches them to make their team understand the importance of work-life balance. Try different ways to improve work-life balance. In this way, your team will appreciate your efforts and will try and be more efficient and dedicated towards their work. Trust your employees to find their balance to maximize their productivity by their own will instead of external pressures.
4. TIME MANAGEMENT
Time management is not about employees meeting all deadlines and always being on time. It is more about time organization and execution of work to complete their tasks on time. It is true that this mainly depends on the employees’ skills and habits. But one can always work to improve their time management skills.
Time management is an imperative part of behavioural skills training and crucial conversations training program. One of the best ways to make sure that employees are on schedule is to remove distractions. Mobile phones and social media are two main distractions these days. Try and doing a detox for some time, stay away from your phone and focus more on getting things done.
For example – Divide a huge assignment into various smaller parts and set goals for yourself. Push yourself or your team to achieve these goals. Segregating work into sections is helpful because you focus on short term goals and tasks are more immediate.
As a leader, you can also share time management tips every now and then with your team. Some of these are – focusing on difficult tasks first thing in the workday. Regularly check with your team to know their progress and if they need help at any stage. All these comprise crucial conversations training and will help employees develop their time management skills and improve their performance.
5. SELF-IMPROVEMENT
When working in the same workplace for years, there are chances you might feel stagnated and that your growth has reached a plateau. There should be a constant hunger and strive for improvement and being a better version of yourself. You’ll see that complacency leads to a perception of repetition. Your team should continuously reinvent and improve themselves to avoid the frustration of inexperience and contentment with their work.
A good employee is someone who wants to grow and be challenged. They are always ready to learn new skills and polish their present skills to reach a greater height of success. Give your employees the necessary tools and mindset aimed for improvement. Observe their way of working, productivity, and overall behaviour and find the right way to give constructive feedback. You can also provide criticism if needed so that your employee can benefit in the long run. The objective is to remove sloppiness, lack of participation and dedication, and tardiness.
Behaviour skills and crucial conversations training program are two such helpful tools. It is important that you keep in mind that when focusing on the improvement of your employees, you shouldn’t highlight on their failures. Always consider them a small speed-breaker that can be crossed when you channelize your energy in the right direction and move forward with perseverance.
6. STRESS MANAGEMENT
Stress is a complimentary gift that cannot be denied in the fast-paced life of today. When working in such competitive corporate culture stress due to the job and other factors become a major hurdle for employees. Be it work pressure, unexpected deadlines, or handling delicate situations at the workplace, all this increases the overall stress.
A lot of people think that diverting your attention from stress stimulators is a great option. But the best way is to build resilience and practice stress management in your personal and professional life. Employees should understand and learn to confront problems that are causing stress and work actively to resolve them.
There are several strategies in the crucial conversations training program that should be implemented to overcome stress and intense trauma. As an employer, it is your responsibility to help employees and your team deals with situations in a calm and composed manner. Help them develop resilience by encouraging them to strike a better work-life balance.
7. PATIENCE
Patience is one of the most important virtues that’s needed to be a part of the concrete jungle. Many times people forget that getting to a satisfying position in your professional life takes time. Many entry-level jobs can be dissatisfying and that hustle to climb the ladder of success requires patience. Reaching a position where you can utilize your full potential may take years in the industry, in-depth knowledge, and lots of on job experience.
As a leader, you should help your team envision long term benefits that working for the organization. Also, make them understand their career path and growth. Be transparent about the opportunities that’ll come their way in the future. This is best done through training, completing projects, developing skills, and reaching milestones.
Following these 7 guidelines for behavioural training and you’ll be able to be a better leader and help your team become more cohesive and efficient.