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10 Ways to Gain The Respect and Affection of Your Staff
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 DON'T BE A JERK! Let's begin with the big one: Being a jerk, yelling, running people down, being defensive, shooting the messenger, and publicly berating someone are all off limits. Good people have options, and few of them will want to work for a jerk for very long.
BE FAIR For sure you should set the bar high, but does that necessarily mean that you should ask people to do the impossible, insisting, for example that a staff member work late into the evening or on a weekend for something that really could wait is unfair.
KEEP YOUR WORD Do what you say you are going to do and do it on time. This is true whether it's providing feedback on a project, going to bat for or getting that salary increase for a staff member like you promised. Responding to your staff is very much the same thing. How long does it take to write "I am sorry; I can't look at this right now, but I will next week". Letting your staff know where things stand is a quality that staff love in a manager.
VALUE YOUR STAFF Act in ways that show you care about their quality of life. And don't underestimate the impact of regularly making sure great employees know you think they're great.
SOLICIT FEEDBACK Ask for input on everything from how the staffer thinks last week's event went to what you could be doing to make her job easier. Good managers know their employees have a different perspective to share, and they value it, rather than ignoring it or feeling threatened by it.
STAY FOCUSED ON RESULTS Don't have rules and policies for their own sake; make sure each is connected to an actual business need, and be willing to bend the rules if it makes sense overall.
KNOW WHAT YOUR PEOPLE NEED Figure out what people need to do their job better, and help them get it.This can range from training and better equipment to the elimination of a counterproductive policy to your intervention with a problem coworker or department to advice on handling a sticky situation.
DON'T AVOID DIFFICULT DECISIONS Your job is to solve problems, not avoid them. That means you're going to have to have tough conversations, make decisions that may be unpopular, and enforce standards and consequences. Ironically, while managers who avoid these things are usually trying to avoid upsetting employees, they end up doing exactly that, because good employees will get frustrated and disgruntled by a manager's passivity and avoidance of conflict.
SPEAKING OF WHICH: BE HONEST Be honest about performance problems.While talking about performance problems isn't pleasant, it's far worse to be an employee whose boss doesn't care enough to tell him about areas he needs to improve in. Even if you're convinced such a conversation would be fruitless and the employee can't change, he deserves to know. Maybe you're underestimating him, or perhaps it would be useful for him to why he's a bad fit. Finally, it is likely a good thing to let an employee see the writing on the wall so he can start looking for other positions. If a manager has complaints or concerns about an employee and the employee doesn't know it, the problem is at least as much with the manager as with the employee.
DON'T ASSUME YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON Probe around and ask questions; you may be surprised what you uncover. Things you want to know: How satisfied are your employees? How's their workload? What would improve their quality of life at work? What part of their job are they struggling with? What can you do to help them improve and/or manage around this? Are there obstacles that are making their jobs more difficult? What are their goals for their jobs and their longer-term future, and are there things you can do to help with that? Keep in mind that you need to go out of your way to encourage people to talk to you about these things, as many will not speak candidly to you without encouragement.
Canada's Municipal Recruitng Specialists
"If you have been waiting for your ship to come in why not try rowing out to meet it" |
