What keeps you up at night?

What kept me up last night was thinking about how to engage my current employee's. We have asked alot of our employees this past year, and maybe as a leader our efforts had to be focused elsewhere but now the question is what do they need from me and how do I keep them engaged?

One factor of success that everyone agrees with is having the right people in the right seats, as Jim Collins refer es to it. Now is the time more then ever to ensure that effort and focus is spent developing our key talent in an organization, identifying our future leaders, engaging employees in their positions and holding onto them.

As we start to see movement within the economy, our employees have also been patiently waiting to see what could be next for them. Now is the time to develop your talented individuals to ultimately sustain your team and create a competitive advantage. But how do you know your key talent is really on board? The following questions, findings from a Watson Wyatt Worldwide study, are a good place to start:

Would employees recommend your organization to others?
Are they satisfied with advancement opportunities?
Do you employees believe management has the ability to grow the business?

Now is the time and responsibility as a leader to refocus our efforts from just 'staying the course' to keeping talented people and ensuring that when new opportunities arise, employees want to keep their seat on your bus.

The reality for most of us is that the employees have developed strength and resilience they did not have before and before you waste valuable time and costs on the recruitment process after they leave, why not renew, motivate and engage your current talented employees.

Your goal as a leader is to ensure employees continue to be passionate about their work, value their contribution, create growth opportunities and share your vision with meaning, purpose and honesty.

What will not keep me up tonight is knowing if my employees are engaged because today I take the challenge and make the choice to lead my team by asking questions, actively listening to the answers, strengthening commitment, renewing pride in performance and recognizing the incredible talent I know I have around me.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><((">Team Member at Cacth Your Limit Consulting a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, Florida and Richmond, Virginia. To learn more, visit http://www.catchyourlimit.com/