Energize Your Team Members and Make Them More Productive

By Vipa Thanyakarn, Genius Solutions’ Vice President of Operations

“The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.”

Harold Geneen Former CEO of ITT (International Telephone & Telegraph Corp.)

As an employer, good employees are hard to find. When we do find the right person, we want to keep them. As employers, we offer the jobs, set the wages, and give employees their job responsibilities and duties; however, there are other things we need to consider when we want to create a long-term employer and employee relationships.


Despite some opinions to the contrary, wages and benefits are no longer the main factors in getting and keeping good employees. An employee needs to feel like they are a valuable member of your organization or office and their relationship with you, the employer, is secure. When this is the case, the employee feels vested in the company and begins to share in your vision of what it can become.

Energizing employees can increase your organization’s productivity. Employees need to be accountable for their job, but you also want them to stretch and grow your organization.

Here are some suggestions to aide in this task:

Don’t just “expect” your expectations.
Don’t assume that employees know what a “good job, well done” is, on their own. Unless you share the same vision, you cannot expect the same outcome. Let them know what you want them to do, along with how and when to do it. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Then you can both expect a positive outcome.

Allow employees to have a measure of control and influence over their work.
To keep employees at a high level of energy and production, you have to give employees a clear purpose and well-defined goals, and then they need to be allowed creativity and involvement in your organization or office.

Build employee morale.
Providing employee feedback improves both morale and performance.

• 75% of employees believe that they have a direct impact on their organization’s success
• 72% derive a sense of accomplishment from their jobs

There are two types of feedback:
1. Recognize people for doing a good job. A nice pat on the back can help push someone forward and up.
2. Give people permission to fail when appropriate.  There is no individual or organizational growth without the ability to try new things, learn from mistakes, and grow to new heights.

“High Tech” should allow for “High Touch”.
The more we replace labor with computers and other machines, the more we need to show employees that we care. The human touch should never be eliminated. Be positive and meaningful in praise and communications with one another.

Provide proper employee training.
Give employees knowledge and information that they can use in their job. This will give them the tools they need so that they can meet your standards and exceed your expectations.

Trust your employees and treat them with dignity and respect.
You will find that you will receive back that which you give out.

Encourage employee creativity.
Give your employees the time, tools, and support to think and create and they will voluntarily figure out the best way resolve organizational problems.

Allow employees to take on new challenges and/or interests.
Assign small projects or tasks that require learning new things, dealing with new people, or working under new pressures which are not directly involved with their current job responsibilities. These projects may include such things as:  planning an off-site meeting, negotiating with patients or vendors on a new issue, being part of new system, etc. You may both find the gift of hidden talents and abilities.

Meet together regularly to review goals and objectives.
This keeps everybody focused on your office goals through joint accountability and review for constant process refinement.