How to be a great employer/manager?

You need to understand that people want to be useful and they want to grow (sometimes this means trying new things).

The best illustration of this is a Venn diagram I saw at Smartly.io. It looks something like this:

The Employment Sweet Spot

This diagram depicts the employment sweet spot. There are three areas: competitive advantage, true motivation, and impact for the company.

As long as an employee finds him/herself in the sweet spot, both them and the company will prosper from the magic that ensues.

At any time, an employee may feel like the work they have been doing recently is not in the sweet spot where they can leverage their competitive advantage, align with their current motivations, and maximise their impact on the business. This is why talking about how you’re feeling about work with your manager is important; vice versa, for managers to know to occasionally ask, “how are you feeling about work lately?” (Read more of what I think are useful 1-1 questions here.)