The best gift managers can give is one-on-one interaction

In this season of sharing and self-improvement resolutions, I can suggest the perfect gift for your co-workers.

It will require no cash outlay, but will be priceless to the recipient. Moreover, the benefits will bounce back to you over time.

By John Epperheimer
Special to the Mercury News

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/7584824.htm

To reap this satisfaction and help your colleagues, you need merely to offer a bit of your time and your thinking.

If you are a manager, the best thing you can do for your employees in 2004 is to interact more with them one-on-one.

In my opinion, the expectation of manager commitment to employees’ development is one of the great casualties of a career environment where workers are nomads and managers aren’t rewarded for helping their workers learn and advance.

This state of affairs creates a significant opportunity for the manager who is willing to buck the trend — especially if the budget for employee training is microscopic because of the recession we’ve endured.

Sharing your feedback, insight and experience with your employees requires making this interaction a priority — which means you must take time away from other duties.

There are at least two compelling business reasons to do so.

First, as more jobs slowly become available, your employees will think twice about leaving if they know a benefit of staying is a commitment to their development.

Second, you will develop a reputation as a manager who cares about employees and invests in them, meaning more and more people will want to work for you — giving you a greater choice of talent to pick from when your workers get promoted and move on.

If you are not a manager, there is a way for you to give to your colleagues that is just as important.

Make 2004 a year where you resolve to help your co-workers with their network. Reach out to them by suggesting a get-together for lunch or coffee.

Let them know you are willing to share information, ideas and contacts to broaden their career thinking and expand their networks.

You will find they will reciprocate, and I can guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised at what you learn, and pleased by the feeling that you have support you can call on.

One manager, who is looking for a new job, told me recently, “I’ve discovered it is hard to build your network at the same time you need to use it for job leads.”

You will have the same experience if you find yourself in a job hunt after being withdrawn from your colleagues over a period of years.

As you exercise off those holiday pounds, make a mental list of the career giving you intend to do in 2004. It may be the best gift you give.

John Epperheimer has worked as a newspaper editor and start-up executive and now heads a leadership coaching and consulting firm. E-mail him at jepperheimer@ workpathgroup.com or write him care of San Jose Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95190.