Helping Your Employees "Team Up" with You

Help your employees be proactive in coming to you with issues that down the road will cause disintegration of the relationship you have with them. Here are some tips that might fix a bump in the road before it becomes a pothole.

Tell employees to keep track of their successes. Like most people, supervisors can’t remember everything. So ask you employees to give you a list of accomplishments about a month before it is time to evaluate them. This improves the chances the you--thesupervisor will give the employee credit for the work work and the employee will not feel resentment for successes overlooked.

Tell your employees not to be a stranger to you as the supervisor. Tell them to be proactive, to stay out in front, and make a point to involve themselves in work while discovering what you as a supervisor wants most.

3. Tell employees to ask you for positive feedback. You can't baby your employees. Sure, you should try to give them positive feedback and plenty of it, but is also ok for them to say, "Hey, what did you think of the way I handled that crisis yesterday with the Johnson account. So, teach them to come and ask for feedback.  Sure, tell your employees, "It not going to be easy for you to ask me what I think of your work. Tell your employees not to treat you like a parent, expecting them or have them understand their needs through intuition. Use negative feedback to work toward a higher standard. Ongoing difficulties may signal a need for assistance from the EAP, and should training your employees to go get it.