Creative empowerment: 10 steps to altering your corporate culture
Every business owner strives to achieve amazing results for his or her company. They want success, growth and revenue brought to their business, and are willing to do what it takes to get that. However, without adequate resources, the effort might not be enough.
Is there anything better than hard-working employees? For a company that’s all about success and advancement, employees that are dedicated to their workplace are precious. How can you, as a manager, obtain employees that are motivated and dedicated to their jobs? The answer is simple: creative empowerment.
To achieve the wanted productivity and creativity, you don’t need to hire new people every time a mistake happens. On the contrary, you need to work on your management style and alter your corporate culture. Here’s what you can do to achieve creative empowerment in your employees.
1. Create an inspiring workplace
Creative empowerment begins in the workplace. If you have employees who get sick at the thought of coming to work, you might have a problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. People who dislike their workplace and are not satisfied with the company tend to be less motivated and less willing to invest their knowledge and productivity in their work. Do you see the issue here?
Dull office cubicles, no natural light and no fresh air affect the mood and motivation of your employees more than you think. To spark up creativity, you need to grant innovation and the dynamic workplace where the use of skills come naturally.
To create the office that inspires innovation provide your staff with large open spaces, well-designed interior, modern technology and a lot of whiteboards and markers to spark up the creativity. You don’t need to build your premises from scratch to have a modern office that inspires creative empowerment.
2. Offer flexible schedules
Individual differences are valued now more than ever. People are slowly starting to realise that not everyone is the same as them. This is luckily influencing the organisation of work in many companies. To value individuality is to offer flexibility in the tasks and schedules. How can that help?
It’s commonly known that people get inspired and motivated to work and create during different hours of the day. Why would you stop them there? Working from 9 to 5 is ideal for many, however, not everyone can fit in that mould. That’s why you should offer flexible working schedules to get maximum creative empowerment.
Some people strive in the morning, while others are night owls. On the other hand, many individuals find strict environment inspiring, while others like to work in a laid-back atmosphere. See what works the best for your employees and grant them freedom of choice. The results will be visible in no time.
3. Create diverse teams
There is nothing wrong with wanting what’s best for your business. Surely, you are aware of your qualities and skills and seek employees that live up to your expectations. However, you might forget that you don’t need to hire replicas of yourself. Diversity is the key.
There is nothing more fulfilling than learning something new or obtaining a different point of view. You can’t achieve that if you hire people who are similar to you. That’s why clones and replicas aren’t needed if you want to creatively empower your team.
To achieve maximum creative empowerment, build diverse teams. People with various skills, experience and knowledge may contribute to your business more than people who are similar in those fields. Different cultural backgrounds, education and life experience can help you create a unique atmosphere and the team that’s built for success.
4. Reward risk-taking behaviour
It’s commonly thought that risk-taking leads to failure. While this is partly the truth due to impulsive decisions, well-thought-out actions, that have a certain degree of risk, can be highly beneficial. If your employees take the proper risk, reward them.
Many people are afraid to indulge in risky behaviours as if they are something that automatically leads to failure. But how many successful companies you know that didn’t take the risk? Risk-taking is the first step to the possible success, so don’t be afraid of it.
To motivate your staff to take the risk, you need to reward calculated risk-taking behaviour. Set an example and take risks your self. Risk-taking doesn’t necessarily mean rule-breaking. It’s simply thinking outside of the box which increases creative thinking and motivation at work.
5. Allow failure and disagreements
We’re thought to think that failure and miscommunication are necessarily bad and should be avoided at all cost. However, most of us forget that we are just humans and that mistakes happen no matter how hard we try to avoid them. It’s up to you as a manager to try to alter that mindset in favour of the company.
Try to teach your employees that failures do not exist. There are no failures, only learning opportunities. With a mindset like that, your employees will be more likely to take the risk and create something extraordinary.
Similarly, disagreements are great for company culture. Why? Your staff shouldn’t be afraid to speak up and explain their point of view. By taking different opinions into consideration, you’re more likely to get to the solution that will be the most beneficial for your company. Even if your team disagrees on a certain topic, they can learn to compromise, experiment and tolerate differences which will only strengthen their bond.
6. Provide regular feedback
Believe it or not, feedback is essential for creativity, motivation and work satisfaction. Your employees need to have timely feedback on their work. The reason behind this is to know whether they are going in the right direction on their projects, so they can improve, fix or continue their work undisturbedly.
Praises and rewards are the best motivators. This doesn’t mean that you should give them money every time they do something well. A compliment and gratitude for their work are as effective as a material reward.
Employees love to feel as if they’ve contributed to the organisation. So, show your gratitude for their hard work and they will pay you back by investing their knowledge and skills in the projects. Appreciate the time they invest in your company and provide regular feedback for their work for the best results and outcomes.
7. Set clear goals and provide encouragement
Have you ever been in a situation where it was unclear what was expected from you? Those types of situations are anxiety and stress-inducing which minimises the “think outside of the box” mindset. Therefore, creativity and productivity are non-existent.
This means that you should stop giving your employees unclear tasks and too generic goals they can’t follow. Communicate your expectations from them openly and set clear goals. Why is that important? If the goals are unclear, your employees will spend a lot of time trying to figure out what you meant by what you said and have no energy or motivation to rightfully do their tasks.
Even if the tasks are clear and goals are achievable, always encourage your staff. Encouragement gives them mental strength and will to complete the tasks in the best way possible. With clear goals and regular encouragement, workplace atmosphere will improve.
8. Grant autonomy…
Autonomy is crucial for individuality. Everyone expresses their needs and creativity in a different way. If you limit different types of expressions, you limit creativity, as simple as that. By granting them autonomy, you’re giving them a sense of accomplishment and “ownership” of their actions. This makes them responsible for fantastic outcomes of their hard work.
As a manager or team leader, you should feel the need to control people. Rather than that, try to facilitate and connect them with different ideas. Reward creative thinking and show them some techniques that might come in handy when they are seeking for inspiration and motivation.
Reward your employees for creativity and effort. It’s your job to inspire and engage them in their work. Try to spark up strategic thinking within them and reward new ideas and plans they’ve thought of. Autonomy isn’t only being able to make decisions on your own, but to create inspiring work and contribute to the organisation you work for.
9. …but socialise your team
Autonomy is amazing for individual creativity, but what about the whole organisation? Even though autonomy isn’t a threat to the team, you should teach your employees to cooperate and work together. After all, that’s what makes companies so powerful.
To build a successful team, besides diversity and creativity, you need a strong bond and socialisation. There are many ways in which you can achieve that, building cosy breakrooms is one of them. Comfortable breakrooms are known to bring people together. There is nothing better than a warm cup of coffee and a chat with your colleagues.
Serving top-quality coffee is a huge plus to your organisation. Offer them tasty coffee from professional coffee machines to make their breaks more enjoyable. Encourage them to leave their phones at their desks and talk to their co-workers to build a strong team.
10. Don’t forget the fun
Last, but not least, have fun. Everyone likes to relax and have some fun from time to time. Even if you’re a serious company with an amazing reputation, that doesn’t mean that strict workplace and environment should stop you from having fun. Organise occasional formals, parties and barbeques for your employees.
Parties and get-togethers are extraordinary team building activities. They facilitate creativity, socialisation and team integrity. There is nothing better than spending one Friday per month outside of the office.
Relaxing and entertaining atmosphere like that can only motivate your employees to work harder and get back to your company. That is a great opportunity to meet your staff and create a bond that will last for a long time.
Conclusion
Making small changes in the management style can grant excellent improvements in the corporate culture. The way you treat your employees directly affects the way they treat their tasks and your organisation. So, try to be the best version of yourself and your staff will give back to you by trying harder and staying dedicated to your business.
Creativity, motivation and employee satisfaction are essential for a successful business. Therefore, you should use creative empowerment to harness their creativity and respect their individuality to get amazing results.
Emma Williams is an Australian writer with a master‘s degree in business administration, who has a passion for anything lifestyle and design related. She spends most of her time redecorating and participating in house projects. As a great nature lover, her biggest pleasure is spending time in a small cottage by the river.
