Skip to main content

Respecting Your Employees

Happy February! Is "walking the walk" a tired old cliche or a bold new concept? Very few managers today are receiving formal management training. As a result, many are poor communicators and weak in their delegation and leadership skills.

According to a Gallup poll, 25% of U.S. employees would fire their bosses if they could. Why? Because many manager set high service standards for their employees, yet fail to abide by those same standards.

If you are a manager, you are in an excellent position to lead by example. Your employees will only respect your authority if they observe your excellent customer service skills on a daily basis. Customer loyalty must be a top-down initiative.

 Here are five ways you can earn greater respect and increase employee loyalty:

1. Always give performance reviews and salary increases on the promised dates. Employees have those dates memorized. They won't feel valued and will resent you if their review dates are postponed or forgotten.

2. Have empathy for your employees. Show compassion by being flexible with hours and time off so they can tend to family emergencies. or illnesses.

3. Be a mentor and coach by sharing your knowledge and experience. Explain to them how business decisions were made, especially when it involves them.

4. Trust your employees and be willing to delegate projects based on their strengths. If you tend to be a control freak, learn to let go and get out of the habit of mico-managing people.

5. Let your employees know they're valued. Smile at them, be approachable, remember the names of their family members and sincerely thank them every chance you get.

The only times that employees can successfully challenge your authority is when they see that you are not practicing what you preach.

Keep in mind that your employees are your primary customers. Treat them with the same respect and caring service that you deliver to your external customers. Remember that you set the tone for your entire department. Your employees are watching you! This month, we started an "appreciate your colleague" exercise. It has been a way for all of us in the office to recognize each other. We hope you had a wonderful February and please let us know how we can help you in the upcoming months!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coaching

Happy June!  Summer, here we come!  This month I want to discuss coaching .  I have talked before about utilizing a coach.  Now, I want to talk about being a coach.  I have been blessed with three different coaches across my nine-plus years with ProRecruiters.  They have challenged me to grow by evaluating what I’ve done and what I’m doing in order to determine what I will do going forward. Unfortunately, I do not always serve as a coach to my own team. Creating an environment in which you function as coach to your team benefits everyone. It helps you to see what’s working, what’s not, and potential areas of growth. It allows team members to discover their potential by being challenged to excel. It reveals potential problems while they are still “potential” problems.  And the cherry on top: it builds camaraderie throughout the team. As I have researched coaching, I’ve learned several foundational principles that must be in play if you want to cr...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Difference Between Setting Goals vs Systems

Happy 2019!   First and foremost, I hope that this year is off to a great start and that it is a wonderful year for you both personally and professionally.   To kick off the year, I want to talk about the importance of setting goals.   You might ask yourself why it is so important to have goals.   My mentor educated me on this just a few years ago.   He said that without goals, you become like a hamster on a wheel going nowhere, and no one wants to work for, invest in, or be part of a company that is simply spinning its wheels.   This was a very influential visual for me and enough to give me the incentive to create goals and always be moving forward. In years past, I would set New Year’s resolutions.   To be honest, they would hold for about the first month or two and then wither away and not thought of again until the next year - kind of like a business plan that is written, printed, and then tucked away to collect dust.   However, abo...
Post a Comment
Read more
August Accountability  “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” -Thomas Paine Accountability and humility are traits that one might not see as such a tenacious asset to have in the workplace.  More and more we hear of a "collective narcissism" sweeping the business world. Some say they are not surprised at this trend, and point fingers at a mainstream culture that supports unrealistic expectations, cutthroat competition, materialism, and self obsession.  I am sure we all have worked in organizations where the daily practices of dishonesty, blame-shifting, and gaslighting are an accepted artform, and clients are treated like commodities.  Whatever the cause of what seems to be an uprising in a culture of blame-shifting and un-accountability.. The house of cards is destined to crumble.  Fostering a Culture of Accountability  Though it seems like an extremely loft...
Post a Comment
Read more