The other day I came across a post, about how insecure employers can push a candidate towards performing harder, and I felt a mirror in front of me. I realized how important it is to talk about the other side of the coin! I have been both an employee and an employer, and I realize how toxic bosses can kill a talent and how a true leader can bring out the best in a candidate!
A toxic employer can indeed push you towards an edge. You skip parties, and even life at times subsequently, to overdo and outperform yourself. Ah! Those sleepless nights and the long fasting days, when you conveniently become possessed by the demon of creativity; and then the bubble bursts! You jolt back to reality- the stacks of unpaid bills! The point is that you get appreciated for your work every day, but your success seems to be a vanishing point of your perspective painting.
After thirteen years of professional experience, I feel there can be nothing positive about toxic and insecure employers. Their wrath of exploitation spares none, and not everybody has the strength and mindset to stand back and resist. As a result, many talents get lost forever in the whirlpool of unsuccessful creators or artists.
On the other hand, a true leader and an encouraging employer can boost up the rising talents in so many ways:
- Acknowledging The Talents: If you are a recruiter, the first and foremost thing you can do is to recognize your employee’s talent. This is obviously easy because you selected them from the crowd! Even the small business owners choose their clients based on certain specific criteria, so you couldn’t have accidentally hired them! This particular step dynamically boosts the motivation of your employee!
- Let Them Grow: The next step is to allow your employees to use your valuable resources, to up-skill themselves.
Now, this step also poses significant problem in the recruitment sector. While hiring, the recruiters don’t always expect the employees to be smart or excellent performers. No matter how many times they win the race, the recruiters want to put them in a leash; in simple words- they want to control the employees. But, even that means restricting growth!
- Let Your Employees Perform: This is the most difficult part. It involves taking risk for many business owners but allows the employees to perform without intimidation. Too much interference can be frustrating for an outperformer, who wants to grow at his/her own pace. So, it is vital to give them some time to perform.
Finally, it’s time to weigh the results and motivate them to perform better. Rewarding your employees doesn’t necessarily mean massive hikes or expensive vacations. Even a music concert or visit to a scathing, yet socially relevant “Laughter show” with the boss can be a rewarding experience if the company is worth it. Ideation and explorations are the two things that motivate an employee even more than monetary rewards. To appreciate your employees, and to acknowledge their contribution to a project, you don’t need a huge turnover.
Kind words and support are the real-time currencies to be leveraged in the employment sector, after the global pandemic. However, the main problem with many recruiters in the current time is they want to extract maximum work with minimum investments. Other than rewarding your employees with money, you should try to boost their confidence by sending personal appreciation notes or certificates of excellence.
The best part of entrepreneurship is that it allows us to correct our mistakes whenever we realize that there are better ways to accomplish the task. However, growth is essential for both employers as well as employees. Unless you encourage your employees to grow, there are relatively less chances of your personal growth; and even if you manage to do so, you are closing a wide door of opportunities by restricting your organization’s overall growth.
As entrepreneurs or CEOs, we have to be always open to learning new things and adapting to changes and adverse situations, because that is the only way to encourage complete growth. Instead of competing with your employees, try to learn new skills from them, or implement new ideas together. This will take your organization a long way and pave a great success story for you and your employees alike!