Blog - Page 51 of 121 - Optimus Performance

Implement These 3 Key Practices to Have Highly Motivated Employees

Oct 30, 2019 No comments Comments

Using these three best practices in leadership and management will ensure highly motivated employees.

Hire the right person for the job. This is kind of obvious in that who would want to hire the wrong person for the job. Yet it happens often because we often don’t see the whole picture objectively.
- Hire for skill fit. When a person can use their skills and strengths on the job abundantly, they feel they are growing and learning on the job.
- Hire for company fit. People need to feel they fit in.
- Hire for job fit, thinking style, behavioral traits and occupational interests. This can only be properly measured using a psychometric assessment like the PXT Select.
Provide interesting and challenging work. When people are using their skills and strengths as previously mentioned and they are challenged with interesting work, they experience a sense of personal satisfaction. This is a very powerful self-motivation force.
Reward or pay for performance. Top performers should be paid more than average performers and when you have a clear reward policy, then everyone should see the pay structure as fair. Also use recognition, feedback and show appreciation so that top performers know they are highly valued. If you fear you might inflate their ego, then it’s up to you to keep it in check if it gets overblown.

If you currently have people in the wrong job you need to correct that before you can implement the other two practices.

Apply these three motivational factors and watch the performance of your organization grow.

How to Clone Your Top Performers

Oct 22, 2019 No comments Comments

How would you like to have more employees like your top performers?

According to a recent article in the Les Affaires business publication and taken from a study by Denis Morin a professor specialized in compensation at the University of Montreal, top managers generate 49% more profits than managers performing at a satisfactory level.

The same is true for salespeople who according to the study, top performers generate 67% more in sales that the average performing salesperson.

The first thing you need to do is understand what drives these top performers. You can do that through conversation, but the best way is to use a psychometric assessment, especially one like the PXT Select that allows you to compare candidate to a performance model based on your top performers.

Top performers in a job share certain thinking style attributes, behavioural traits and motivational interests that are best suited to the position. At the foundation, this is what drives them to standout in their job compared to average performers.

Higher performers enjoy their work more and perform better because the work suits them very well as they can use their skills and strengths in greater capacity. The work provides a greater sense of personal fulfillment and they usually get noticed and rewarded accordingly.

You can learn more about the PXT Select and request sample reports and a test run.

Training and Development is Crucial for Good Employee Performance

Oct 16, 2019 No comments Comments

I recently took up mountain biking or at least I bought a mountain bike and attempted to navigate beginner trails. I found myself having great difficulty handling the bike on the trails and was quite fearful of falling and getting injured. My cycling experience was with road cycling, but those skills did not transfer to the mountain bike.

I quickly realized that I needed help, or my bike would be sitting idle in the garage. I signed up for private lesson and that allowed me to get more comfortable with the bike and learn some essential skills to better control my ride. The result was an immediate difference in my ability to handle the bike on the trails, less fear and more enjoyment.

This made me think of how important training and development is for skills development and improved performance.

Training and development is not just for new employees or to address changes in work procedures or technology. Training and development should be ongoing for all employees as everyone can continue to learn and improve their skills.

Training and development can help employees:

Stay current and relevant
Reduce fear of change
Improve skills
Improve work performance
Enjoy work more
Take on new challenges

One suggestion is to have a highly skilled employee with a specific skill set train other employee to have them also improve their skills. This will provide recognition to the trainer and keep the costs of training low.

You can refer to my article and video on the Seven Steps for Training and Coaching Employees for more about this.

Trees Can Teach Us Lessons about Organizational and Employee Development

Oct 08, 2019 No comments Comments

Trees continue to grow throughout their lifetime and some can live to several thousand years, but most between fifty and sixty.

As they grow trees contribute to their environment and many forms of life depend on them to survive. In fact without trees humans would not be able to live.

An organization is like a forest and each tree is like an employee that contributes to the well being of the ecosystem.

Continuous growth and development is essential for a healthy organization that can be robust enough to face the most challenging and harshest conditions. In fact the oldest trees tend to live in the most brutal habitats on the planet.

Trees are generous in that they share their nutrients through their root systems and will provide those nutrients to other trees that are vulnerable or lacking.

Ongoing training and development that addresses the total person can foster an attitude of generosity so that people are eager to help each other grow and overcome performance challenges.

It is up to leaders to understand this and themselves continue to grow and encourage everyone in the organization to do the same, while providing the required resources.