There is plenty of press about bad bosses, toxic managers and inept leaders. But the average person never sets out to be subpar. Unfortunately, intention doesn’t always translate to the impact you want.
Being a great leader is critical to your own esteem and career success, and it significantly affects others as well—from their motivation and satisfaction to their decisions to remain at an organization and give their best effort.
These are especially important in today’s market where talent is tough to find and keep—and where competitive pressures make results harder to accomplish.
But you can be intentional about developing your leadership acumen—and avoid being the kind of leader who demotivates employees or causes them to disengage.
Bad Bosses Abound
It’s sobering, but 87% of people say they’ve worked for a toxic leader at some point in their career, according to a poll by FlexJobs.
And bad bosses take a significant toll with 51% of people reporting they experience increased anxiety and 44% saying they struggle with mental fatigue based on a bad boss.
But that’s not all. People also suffer from physical symptoms (35% of people) depression (32%), reduced engagement (30%) or declining productivity or performance (24%) based on the poll by FlexJobs.
Big Impacts
It’s important to know you have significant impacts on people. In fact, 69% of people said their boss had a greater influence on their mental health than their doctor or therapist and about the same impact as their partner, according to data from UKG. That’s a lot of responsibility—but also a lot of opportunity to have a positive effect on people.
So here’s what you should do if you want to avoid being a bad boss.
1 – Make the Work Reasonable
One of the biggest things employees struggled with, according to FlexJobs data, was feeling like their boss had unreasonable expectations (30%).
People want to do good work and they’ll appreciate assignments which are substantive and meaningful. And you should certainly hold people accountable for getting their work done—demonstrating their work matters and is valuable.
But stop short of overwhelming people or giving them more than they can handle, as this will erode their self esteem and degrade their engagement.
2 – Give People Growth Opportunities
People want to develop and stretch—and learning is correlated with greater levels of happiness and fulfillment. In fact, 34% of people reported to FlexJobs that poor leaders were characterized by a failure to provide growth opportunities.
Ask people what they want (don’t assume) and do your best to provide stretch opportunities which align with their passions. In addition, work with employees to create formal learning plans—based on the direction they want to go with their career combined with the value they can add to the organization.
In addition, facilitate learning between team members and introduce your employees to mentors who can guide and coach them in their development.
3 – Appreciate People
Another primary way to create a positive work experience is to give credit, appreciation and praise for a job well done. Fully 26% of people said their bad boss failed to give praise or credit appropriately, according to FlexJobs.
And a poll by Gallup and Workhuman found only one in four people had received recognition in the last week. When people did receive recognition, productivity increased 9% and safety incidents and absenteeism were each reduced by 22%.
Even the most stoic employee appreciates knowing they matter—and having great work reinforced, so ensure you’re crediting people based on their contribution to tasks.
Recognize people in the way it will mean the most for them. Fanfare works for some and a quiet compliment is better for others. Never play favorites, and be fair in demonstrating gratitude for the value people are delivering.
4 – Interact Constructively
You can also ensure you’re having a positive effect through your leadership by managing the way you relate to people. In the FlexJobs poll, 40% said their manager behaved passive-aggressively, 33% experienced rude or offensive behavior including sarcasm or put-downs, 21% saw leaders who lacked boundaries, 22% saw their leader gossiping, 20% experienced a leader using threats or gaslighting and 18% experienced discrimination or inappropriate comments or actions.
Obviously, these behaviors are unacceptable, and they are certainly characteristics of toxic leadership. Leaders who display these kinds of actions must be held accountable.
But even if you’re not demonstrating these actions, you may have impacts on people you don’t intend. So, reflect on the effect you have and be aware of how you come across.
No one has good days all the time and leadership is stressful, but be aware of how you come across and manage your actions on both your best days and your worst. Also be predictable. Interesting research finds people prefer predictability in a boss over perfection.
Do your best, be authentic, admit mistakes and work on continuously improving yourself. Ask for feedback and adjust your approach based on the unique needs of your team members. People will see and understand your earnest efforts to be your best.
5 – Consider the Overall Culture
Each leader has a big effect on the character of the organization. Within the overall culture, you’re also creating a specific culture for your team—based on how you behave, the choices you make and the way you set expectations. As you’re considering the experience you’re creating, it may be helpful to consider new research.
In particular Gallup found people most appreciated cultures which were caring, friendly, fun, having integrity, innovative, inclusive, service-oriented and professional. And they were most likely to disengage when they had experiences which were toxic, disorganized, overly focused on money or profits, stressful, chaotic and fast-paced.
You won’t be able to focus on all of these, but you can select one or two and concentrate on making progress toward a positive experience one step at a time.
Emotional Labor
The emotional labor of leaders is real. You’re facing rising expectations from employees and increasing requirements to generate results, attract and retain talent and create constructive cultures within your team.
But you can succeed and thrive, even with the pressure—when you tune into your team members and take a people-centric approach.
Demonstrate the highest levels of respect and empathy and hold team members to standards of excellence in how they interact with each other. Give people great work to do and appreciate their contributions. And give them opportunities to grow.
These will significantly contribute not only to great experiences for people, but will enhance your esteem and credibility as well.
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