Are you a great boss?
In a recent post, we asserted, “Most People Aren’t Good at What They Do”. There is a national problem with creating value. We need to be great leaders in order to be collectively good at what we do. The good news is that growth and innovation create compelling work places with great culture. Are you a good enough boss to make that happen?
Are you performing at your peak?
There is a wise old saying, “if you have a finger pointing at someone, you have 3 pointing back at yourself”. That is the curse of leadership, isn’t it? If your staff is under performing, then it serves that the leaders above them are under performing. Ouch. As leaders, our job is to get the most from our employees! But there are definitely hurdles.
According to Inc. (2022), “More than 70 percent of worker don’t feel satisfied with their career choice”. This applies to managers and leaders as much as it does your staff. Are we compelling our managers and staff to find fulfillment in the workplace? Are we helping the next generation feel challenged and inspired with their daily efforts?
The funny thing about leadership is that there is no single measurement. Profits alone are not enough to determine our leadership prowess. Likability isn’t a great measure. Afterall, it is possible to be well-liked and not have desirable cashflow. Perhaps the best measure is how compelled or well staff follow, but there really isn’t a great KPI for that.
What to your employees think about you?
Career Builder ran a survey that found the top 6 issues that employees had with their direct supervisor.
Doesn't make an effort to listen to employees or address employee morale – 40 percent
Not enough transparency, doesn't communicate openly and honestly – 33 percent
Major changes are made without warning – 30 percent
Workloads and productivity demands are unreasonable – 27 percent
Doesn't motivate me – 21 percent
Stopped investing in the development of employees – 20 percent.
Unless your staff regularly tells you otherwise, this is what they think. We have all faced these issues as leaders, sometimes due to our own actions, and occasionally due to the legacy of leaders before us. But how can we fix it?
3 Simple Tasks to Being the Best Boss Ever!
Respect
Value each employee as though they are your best employee. That one task knocks off the top three reasons employees feel unengaged. When there is an attitude that employees are a “dime a dozen”, or “anyone could do that job”, people feel it. If it is stated, even in a board room, the higher level staff will project that same sentiment on themselves. Turnover issue? you likely have a respect issue. Respect can’t be faked.
“Recognition is the number one thing employees say their manager could give them to inspire them to produce great work… nothing else comes close—not even higher pay, promotion, autonomy or training.” Forbes 2018
Weekly Challenge - catch 2 employees doing something right and tell them you noticed (not publicly, tough, another blog topic). Build respect.
Investing
Without respect, there is little incentive for leaders to want to train. For this reason Investing in staff is after respect. Fortunately, it also fosters respect both ways. It gives a sense of belonging, and in most cases invokes the principle of reciprocity. There are many ways to invest in employees. Group training, thorough new hire on-boarding, cross training. The aim is to increase the likelihood of them succeeding in their role.
Monthly Challenge - line up training for a high performer. This is counter intuitive, so you might cringe at the suggestion. But why not invest in someone has proven to yield a good return? Hint - They likely know what they need.
Transparency
There are some old ways of thinking that just don’t work in our present culture. KPI’s and metrics being driven from the top. Strategic planning sessions behind closed doors that never make it to the departments they affect. Those actions undermine the respect and investment that you have made in the above 2 steps. Involve your staff in more decisions. If performance is low, ask them what they think is reasonable for KPI or metrics. If the number is way off yours, ask them what could be done to get the numbers closer? If the request are outlandish, take the feedback as a requirement for more training.
Quarterly Challenge - have an open and honest Town Hall meeting with all staff present. Have managers follow up afterwards to get feedback.
Invest in yourself.
We admit, these are not the easiest steps to being a great boss. They come at a high cost, being vulnerable and introspective. Most likely, they require challenging some deeply entrenched mindsets. Coaching is a great place to gain accountability and ensure you stick to your best intentions.
Dale, our lead coach, tells of his experience with increasing respect,
“As a someone who had worked on the tools. I felt I had a healthy respect for our staff and supervisors in the field. I regularly caught them doing things right and would invest in their training. One day, my executive coach challenged me over the course of a conversation. Without realizing it, I was attempting to motivate others with things that would motivate me. A simple callout, from a safe source, helped me engage differently with staff and improved mutual respect.”
