All year, I’ve been focusing on doing a series of video tips on employee development ideas – each one a specific, pragmatic, and actionable idea you can use to help your employees develop and grow into accomplished professionals and the future leaders in your organization. As 2019 draws to a close, today’s tip #25 is actually my final one in this series, and I hope you’ve found them practical and useful. I hope you’ve been thinking about how you can harness your people power to build your employees and create results. The final idea: look for deliberate ways to allow your employees opportunities to interact with your clients.
Give your employees opportunities to interact with your clients
At the end of the day, no matter what type of organization you are, your clients are your reasons for being. If you’re a for-profit company, they are the source of your revenues. If you are a not-for-profit, your clients are why you exist. All year, we’ve talked about different employee development ideas, so it makes perfect sense that we close out this series with a strategy that specifically focuses on helping your people grow and develop their client relationships.
There are many ways to do this …
There are many ways to get your employees interacting with your clients. Include them in client meetings, or even better, have one of your high-potential employees organize and host one. You’ll still be present, but your staff member will do the heavy lifting. Or have one of your team make the next client presentation. Again, you can be in the room, but your employee is the focus. If you’re going on a business trip to visit with customers, take your employee with you. The next time one of your customers makes a site visit, have one of your staff take them to lunch. I think you get the idea. The more you allow your employees to interact with your customers, the more you will help them develop and grow into the future leaders of your organization.
So as I said earlier, this is my final tip in this series, but I still want to know what your ideas are. Please share by adding your comment below. And if you’d like to see all twenty-five ideas in one place, you can access the whole series in our Video Archives.