As a leader, manager, business owner or supervisor, it is so important that you understand what it takes to be an effective leader. It is all about understanding the art and science behind effectively leading, managing, motivating and supervising your employees or staff.
These in a nutshell are the essentials. Hopefully, these tips will help you improve your skills and your relationships with your staff. As a result, you should find deeper trust and support.
- Be impartial: As a supervisor or leader, you need to treat each of your staff in an unbiased manner. Always consciously be fair. Always be respectful to EVERYONE you come in contact with, not matter what the position he/she may hold. We all know that there are those individuals who may be more pleasant than others. Others that may be quite the opposite. No matter what, you should avoid any hint of favoritism and treat everyone fairly.
- Be a coach: The workplace is simply that – a place to work. It is not the frontline of a war. Include your staff in decision making whenever it is possible. Encourage them to improve their skills. Try your best to help them get promotions, pay hikes or get recognition when they deserve it. Be a coach of the team. Think about the consequences of treating employees with anything less than respect that good coaches do. Give your employees the tools they need to do the job right and to grow both personally and professionally. There truly is enough success in the workplace for everyone. Share it and inspire it!
- Criticize diplomatically: When you need to give criticism about a person’s performance, you need to be diplomatic. You should avoid making any conclusions without considering the repercussions. Be tactful. The rule of thumb is to praise in public and criticize in private. No one wants to be criticized in front of an audience. You may remember hating it when you were a child being criticized in front of the class. Keep that in mind. Make the criticism specific and work-oriented. It is not personal. Timing is important too. Make the critique immediately when you witness it rather than waiting for several days or longer. It needs to be meaningful, memorable and diplomatic to have long-term success.
- Defend your staff: Remember how your parents used to stick up for you when other people criticized you unfairly? You need to do the same thing with your staff. You need to show them that you are a supportive and reasonable supervisor. When your employees are wrong, find a creative solution to protect your staff, but make things right in the most-diplomatic way possible. Don’t sellout your team, but include them in coming to the conclusion for themselves that mistakes were made if that were the case. If your employees are in the right, help the other party come to that conclusion with logic and REAL facts and data. The whole goal of running an effective organization is creating a sense of trust and value for ALL involved.
- Flexibility is important: Procedures are there to guide people on how things should be done. However, wise leaders recognize that there are times when you need to be flexible when you are dealing with the concerns of your staff. You need to use common sense. Consider who all is involved, who is helped and harmed, as well as any possible long-term consequences of the decision. Not everything is black-and-white or cut-and-dry. Being flexible helps employees to give their best. It does not stifle creativity and promotes the value of being an individual. Some rules CAN simply be broken from time-to-time.
- Keep things simple: When you are giving directions to an employee about a task, make them simple and easy to understand. Try your best not to make things seem so difficult even if the task is actually very challenging. Giving simple directions will make the employee feel confident that he or she can do the job. Keep the person’s learning style in mind. Some folks do better when you give the bottom line of what the final project needs to look like. Others need specific directions. Others need it demonstrated. Be wise and know who you are talking to and change YOUR leadership style to meet the needs of each individual follower. It will pay dividends in the long-run!
- Know your staff: Get to know your team members. Learn their strengths and their weaknesses. Most importantly, make sure you know their names. Nothing can be more disappointing to an employee than to be called “hey you” or even worse “Dude”. Taking time to learn the strengths of your staff will help you when assigning tasks and they will feel good about working with you. For example, if Mary is good at planning events and loves to do that, let her do so when there is an upcoming event. She will feel good about being given a task she loves, she will do it well. She will appreciate you more for assigning her the task.
- Make sure your interest is continuing: Nothing can be more disappointing for an employee that not being given feedback about how well they have done. Feedback on performance needs to be regular. You need to be honest and give feedback regularly. Praise when praise is due and give suggestions for improvement when it is not. Be very specific in your praise. Do not just say, “Good job!” Say, “That looks great! I like the way you met the goal with time to spare and I am confident our customers will like what you did with this specific piece here!”
- Surround yourself with the very best: Being a successful leader means realizing what your personal strengths are and then surrounding yourself with others with the talent you are missing. Know what you know and know what you do not know. There is enough success in this world for all of us. Put the right people in the right places and take good care of them!
- Train everyone: Each person is unique and has his or her own weaknesses and strengths. Make sure you take the time to develop the skills and abilities of each and every member of your staff. Do not overlook anyone. When you take the time to develop everyone, employees will know that you care for them and they will respect you for that. Their performance will improve. Just because an employee says, “Yes. I understand.” That may also mean, “I don’t want you to think I am stupid, but I really did not understand.” Effective training involves the trainee showing how to effectively implement the training and put things in his own words to show complete understanding.
