Working in a positive and a supportive environment doesn’t only motivate workers, but also enables them to grow their career goals and achievements. Maureen Abatesi is among many employees who have discovered their career potential and has been assisted by her manager to fulfill it. Luckily, she acquired a job immediately after graduation three years back, and now works as a waitress in one of the local hotels. Considering it was the first time to work, even after a short training, she made mistakes but explains that her manager made her realise that she was in the right place. This is because he offered her all the necessary support, and guidance to learn and be better at her work, a thing that helped her to avert panic, but take every challenge as an opportunity to learn, and not repeat the same mistakes. Employees deserve feedback as it can encourage them to perform better, feel valued and appreciated. Net photo. “My manager pushed me to take part in learning new opportunities, such as culinary training, which I never considered I would ever learn from my job, and yet it’s a skill that can earn me a better job opportunity. He didn’t only look at how much I valued the company, but also made sure that I was better than how I was a day before. It excites me and empowers me to report to work every single day,” she states. Abatesi carries on that what even makes her work more fun, is the fact that her manager spares some time once every week to offer employees feedback, both positive and negative. “He identifies efforts incurred in the work, areas improved, and directs us on the way forward to succeed. He even shows each of us our weakest areas and how to support and learn from each other,” she adds. Abatesi believes that in order to succeed, employees deserve feedback as it can encourage them to perform better, feel valued and appreciated, improve their engagement, boost work relationships, and allow workers to know that they are part of a team that works towards fulfilling specific goals. She stresses that working in an environment without feedback demotivates workers because they question whether their bosses value their efforts or if they are in the right place, which leaves them unhappy, and daunted. According to Marvin Trevor Aizire, a business enthusiast, supervisors who value your growth will push you to learn new skills, for example, in case of a training, they will encourage you to go for it. He carries on that such supervisors will find opportunities for their workers, such as, promotions, take part in more responsibilities or roles, and the beauty in it is that employees don’t feel stagnant or bored at their jobs. Immaculate Niyonsaba, an IT expert, is of the view that you can’t push yourself to grow at your workplace if not given a chance to express yourself. She notes that employees whose managers or supervisors offer an opportunity to speak up, highlight means or ideas to assist in developing diverse projects. Enabling them let out their complaints and challenges, if heard, helps them perform better. She explains that every employee deserves to be heard as they may have amazing ideas that would assist in the growth of an organisation. Niyonsaba highlights that career growth starts with enhancing workers with healthy smart working tactics, but not overworking them past working hours. “Workers need to have time to chase other career opportunities in their free time, but also having a work-life balance should be key.” She also explains that in order to advance career-wise, employees need to be offered mentorship training, for instance, by making sure that experienced employees offer professional guidance to new and less experienced workers often. ‘This hinders pressure from employees who imagine that they have to figure out everything on their own.’ Niyonsaba points out that you get to elevate at your job if your boss compliments you for a good job, for instance, in an assignment where you exercised your best knowledge and abilities and excelled, or your teamwork skills that led the team to succeed in a task. Sometimes you just need a supervisor who gives you space and trusts that you will do a great job with less supervision— this creates a spirit of independence as you know what to do and would like to do the best.
