There are a lot of challenges when it comes to handling your top-performing employees. In the engineering industry, it’s very easy for your ‘veterans’ to be the best at what they do, to the point that none of their work is a challenge anymore. If this is the case for your best workers, you may want to consider upping up your game when it comes to giving them a new task or project. Ignore this issue any longer and you might be faced with the risk of your best engineers migrating to better and more challenging opportunities. There’s no cookie-cutter approach when it comes to motivating through challenge, but here are some helpful tips you could use to keep them geared up for better work.
Time constraints
Source: Unsplash
An easy way to get more ideas to come in is to ask your employees how they could handle a project in different time constraints. If there are no projects that are hard enough for your A-team to handle, try creating constraints to keep them challenged. Ask them what they would do to finish a 12-month project in 9 months or less and what they would do differently to achieve it. You can also ask them how things would still run smoothly even if they’re going to be away for a specific time period. Simple time-based issues like these could bring about new ideas for your workers to think of
Budget
Source: Unsplash
If your team is really at the top of their game, they would know how money revolves around your business. Keep them engaged by asking them how they would achieve the simplest and cheapest solution to any problems they may encounter. Ask your managers how they would get the best team if they only have 75% of their current budget. Again, the point is to keep them engaged and thinking.
Expertise
Source: Unsplash
This is simple, if they can change how a project would flow with their expertise, you wouldn’t know unless you ask. Ask your key players what they would do if they were the CEO, how would they run things with their expertise. For your managers, ask them how they would manage a team of entirely new people and how they would still be able to finish a quality project.
Sell their ideas
Source: Unsplash
Even if you know how good your people are, test them by having them ‘sell’ their ideas to you or your board. It’s easy to say “yes” when you already know what the employee is capable of. But let them convince you by asking different questions like: how would you convince a 10-year old about your idea, or how would you explain it to someone who doesn’t speak english? Keeping their brains moving keeps them challenged and for hard workers, motivated to continue working at your company.
Article Source:
