Most people leave a job because of the management, not because of the job itself. In fact, a study from Gallup found almost 75% of people left because they couldn’t stand their boss.
There’s clearly no shortage of bad bosses around. Of course, nobody sets out to be a bad boss – many employers want the best for their staff, but simply go about it in the wrong way. If you’re eager to be seen as an amazing boss that inspires and motivated employees, here are just a few measures that could make your staff look up to you.
Spend some time in the trenches
Nobody likes a manager that spends all their time hiding away in the office letting all the employees do the dirty work. Sometimes you have to roll your sleeves up and muck in with the rest of the team. This can help to inspire your staff and it can help to strengthen your relationship with your employees.
It may even allow you to pick up problems that you weren’t aware of. You may have lots of important and equally grueling admin work to get through in your office, but make sure that you still take the time out on occasion to handle some of your employees’ workload – they’ll appreciate you for it.
But don’t micromanage
That said, it’s possible to go too far the other way and interfere with your employees’ work to the point that they detest you. Spend some time working with your employees, but don’t try to manage every small detail.
Giving your employees some freedom to work independently shows that your trust them, making them feel more at ease. It also makes them work faster and more efficiently as they don’t have to check every detail with you before making a decision.
Praise your employees
An amazing boss knows when to give praise to employees that deserve it. Praise is one of the best forms of motivation as it shows that you value your employees for what they’re doing. You should compliment employees every time they excel at something.
Doing this in front of other staff members can offer an example. Praising your employees in front of customers meanwhile can help boost customer confidence. Don’t try to favor one employee too much as this favoritism could rub other employees up the wrong way.
Encourage feedback
An amazing boss also encourages feedback when it comes to improving the business and making things more efficient. You could do this in group meetings or privately with employees. This will make your employees feel like they’re a greater part of the business and will make them care more about the future of the company knowing that they can have a say in it.
Value your employees for who they are
Aside from obvious workplace discrimination, you should be careful of making employees dress a certain way or talk a certain way if there’s no practical benefit. Letting employees be themselves will make them more comfortable and more productive.
It’s worth also getting to know their interests so that you can create a more personal connection. This will help to develop a level of trust and respect between you both.
Be their counselor in their time of need
A good boss also understands that their employees are humans with personal struggles outside of work. Being there as a counselor is important and you should be sympathetic to when employees may need time off to attend to family matters.
You could even introduce an EAP (employee assistance programme), giving your employees a counseling service to talk to if you’re not available or feel out of your depth dealing with the problem. You don’t want to get too involved in personal matters, but you should at least show some compassion.
Offer workplace incentives
There are all kinds of incentives that can make people more eager to work. Goals and rewards are the most traditional form of incentive, but these aren’t always the most effective.
You could be better off offering permanent incentives that make people want to stay at your company – this could be anything from providing free snacks in the office to offering flexible hours to even offering every employee a company car. Offer some sort of luxury that not all other companies offer that will make people want to stay at your company.
Be transparent
No employee wants to feel that they’re being lied to or having information withheld from them. There are obvious things that you don’t want to share with employees such as company financial information, however you shouldn’t lie about the company’s success or hide mistakes that you yourself made.
Own up to things that you’ve done wrong and things that need improving in the business – your employees are likely to be sympathetic if you’re honest. You don’t want employees to be finding out truths later on down the line – they may start to think that the company is shady and whether they want to continue working there.
Don’t always take the customer’s side
The customer isn’t always right. Whilst you should always be civil with customers and try to see things from their view, it’s also important to not automatically take their side. Listening to your employee’s side of the story will make your staff feel that they have your support. Whenever there’s an incident, take the employee aside and get to the bottom of it.
Give constructive criticism
There are times when you need to criticise employees for doing things wrong or offering ideas that you don’t agree with. Always make sure that this criticism is constructive and that you’re offering improvements rather than simply stating that they’re wrong.
Try to help employees that are struggling rather than getting angry with them and try to tame employees that are getting unruly or bullying other by taking them aside and getting to the root of the problem. People naturally react badly to criticism, but there’s a nice way of doing it that ease the blow and make people more eager to learn from their mistakes.
