It goes without saying: If you can do a better job managing people, you’ll be more likely to keep your staff members engaged and focused on their work. In the long run, this should translate to higher levels of productivity and, ultimately, a healthy bottom line.
So where do you begin? Many believe that the first step to a strong workforce is strong leadership at the top. If you’ve got a good boss, you’ve got someone who will always know how to steer the ship in the right direction.
A boss doesn’t necessarily have to be a strict overseer of his or her employees, pushing them to work harder at all times – alternatively, it could be someone friendly who acts as an ally for the staff, not an adversary. Too friendly, though, and you risk letting your employees walk all over you. There has to be some middle ground.
Business News Daily recently asked a handful of corporate leaders for their opinions on what makes a great boss. As it turns out, one of the people they asked was none other than Dave MacKay, president of Ceridian.
“A great manager [is] invested in sustaining employee engagement by keeping employee career progression in mind with opportunities for learning, job growth and career development,” MacKay said.
Learning and growing are important for all employees. If you have the right style of leadership, you can guide people to new levels of achievement. Here are five additional tips on what makes for the best bosses.
Investing in your employees
If you believe in your employees, it’s best to prove it by investing in them. Give your people everything – your time, your energy, your faith. If you can support your people through thick and thin, they’ll definitely do their best to work hard for you.
Recognizing people’s strengths
Every employee is different – they all have their strengths and weaknesses. So focus on their strengths! Recognize what people are good at and put them in position to accentuate their strong points every day.
Holding people accountable
When people achieve great things in the workplace, you want to celebrate their successes and urge them to keep it up. But when things go wrong, you need to hold employees accountable as well. It’s a two-way street.
Showing some flexibility
People like to have managers who are willing to make adjustments for them. If an employee prefers to work from home, for example, it’s reasonable to allow it, provided they can get their work done. It’s perfectly OK to show your employees some wiggle room.
Always communicating effectively
Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, you always want to communicate effectively with your employees and deliver them both good news and bad. Good communicators have the ability to lead the workforce in a way no one else can.
