Empires throughout history have been built on middlemen, and so is yours. Just as the Romans, Mongols, Ottomans and British counted on local administrators to oversee their vast holdings, you must rely on your managers to be the backbone of your company, though hopefully with a bit less brutality than Genghis Khan.

Besides being fluent in their positions to the most professional standards, managers must walk a fine line in supervising the employees under their command. It’s a constant to challenge to keep workers motivated and efficient and requires a natural talent for knowing when to push for more and when to govern with more empathy and understanding. Good ol’ Genghis showed us that ruling through fear can only last so long.

So, don’t be Genghis. Here are just 4 important ways you can support your managers in their complex task and ensure the success that will no doubt trickle down to the men and women they supervise.

Develop

One of the best ways to maintain motivation is to maintain growth and development. Take care to shape a business culture that supports innovation from your managers and allows them to explore their interests. Establish a clear development plan that will involve the input of your managers. People want to enjoy their work and invest their talents in the success of their company. Knowing where the company is headed, allowing your managers to make contributions to that future and always laying out new development goals will go a long way to keeping your staff motivated and energized.

Teach

Equally important to the ongoing energetic development of the company is the willingness to teach. This approach must be initiated by the higher-ups who should be on the lookout for opportunities to educate managers to expand their portfolio of knowledge and therefore their usefulness to the company. In turn, managers need to provide the same opportunity to newcomers and junior members of the team. A workplace without an ongoing regimen of education is a stagnant work place.

Empower

And what are you actually doing by pursuing a steady stream of development and a culture of teaching? You are empowering your employees. The most efficient and productive employee is one full of motivation driven by a sense of purpose and value within the company. The simple first step down this path is to practice listening to all members of the company. While higher-ups should solicit the input of managers, managers should do the same with the teams under their guidance. Consider having periodical reviews with employees to discuss what it is they hope to get out of their work beyond making a living.

Make sure the candidate fits the job

But none of these steps will have any effect if there is a fundamental disconnect between an employee and his work. If you were an html expert who wanted the opportunity to start working more in Java, you probably wouldn’t be pleased getting an entry-level position in QA. This element makes it absolutely essential that good recruitment practices be established from the very beginning. Finding the right candidate for the right position (and vice-versa) is more valuable than all other techniques when it comes to maintaining a motivated and efficient workforce.

It’s so important in fact, that new technology solutions are appearing on the market to meet this very need. Algorithms like those used by OUNA, for example, have made huge strides in analyzing not only a candidate’s work experience, but also his character and motivations and matching him with just the right opportunity. Sort of crazy huh? Definitely not how the Mongols recruiting for their hordes of horsemen, but it is the world of tomorrow and promises to result in happy employees of productive companies.