IN AN AGE OF COVID REMOTE WORKING, POWER UP YOUR TEAM BY GIVING TIGHTER BRIEFS

Good leaders inspire confidence in employees to make their own decisions and deliver exceptional results, especially in this age of remote working. Autonomy is important to people, and good leaders give employees a tight framework for freedom of action and decision-making. This is especially important in an age of remote working, when the boss is not on hand all the time to consult with or oversee work. No leader wants to have a team charging off in different directions, dissipating effort and causing friction and misalignment. They can only truly empower people when they are sure that every member of the team fully understands where they are going, how they’re going to get there, what their role is in achieving the vision, and what values will be used to make decisions along the way. Employees with high levels of empowerment have the highest levels of engagement – which shows that autonomy is not only good for the soul, it’s also good for productivity. For more on how to stop being a micro-manager and how to supercharge your team, see this article I wrote for The Chartered Management Institute. https://bit.ly/35zAoUf
#management #leadership #leadershipdevelopment

ARE YOU AN ENERGY-GIVING LEADER OR AN ENERGY-TAKING LEADER?

Bosses who are energetic walk and talk with energy. They take care to ensure that they energise themselves, but then they take care to make sure that they are energising their teams. Energy is power, and leadership is about focusing your own energy so that you can release the energy of the team and achieve your vision.
Leaders who care about energy care about how much energy their teams have and find ways to energise each and every member of the team.
Learn more about how to energise yourself and your team in this article I wrote for the Chartered Management Institute, here:
 

EMPLOYEES WORK HARDER FOR LEADERS WHO REALLY LISTEN.

Inspiring leaders are intent on connecting with people and giving them the gift of their undivided attention. It is a skill, for we all have to work hard to overcome our natural inclinations, which make us bad listeners.
We get easily distracted. We want to have our say, so we interrupt. If we don’t interrupt, we concentrate on what we want to say and wait for a gap, rather than focusing on what’s being said. We make judgements about the speaker, which blocks our ability to hear what they’re really trying to say.
Perhaps we do listen, but we become more interested in content than in feelings. We don’t try to observe body language, so we stare into space while listening – or perhaps we listen without any facial expressions, remaining silent throughout. Then we leap in with solutions and don’t bother to show that we have understood what we have been told. We certainly don’t acknowledge how the other person feels.
We are bad listeners without realising it. Yet, the simple act of listening well is inspirational in itself.
Good listening has massive business benefits. For more on how to check if you are a good listener, read this article I wrote for the Chartered Management Institute: https://bit.ly/31u6CxN
#leadership #management

BOSSES THINK THEY SHOW RESPECT BUT EMPLOYEES DISAGREE.

Everybody wants two kinds of respect: we want to be respected as human beings, and we want to be respected for our achievements.

The first kind of respect is owed – and should be given freely – to everyone equally. The second form of respect is earned when people perform well or behave in valuable ways; as such, these positive behaviours deserve to be recognised frequently. Sadly, employees feel that their bosses do not give either type of respect enough.
A lack of respect can have devastating consequences – such as highly demotivated people, who feel that their bosses treat them unfairly by failing to recognise effort when it is given. Nothing is more likely to cause disengagement and poor performance than this.
A specialist in the area of civility is Christine Porath, associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in the United States. She believes that rudeness and disrespect are rampant at work and is, in spite of an age of heightened political awareness, actually on the rise. She has polled thousands of workers about how they are treated on the job and says that few organisations recognise the issue and take action to curtail it. Respectfulness is regarded as the most important characteristic of a manager.
My own research, among 4,000 managers and employees, shows that while more than 70% of managers feel they do respect their employees at work, less than 40% of employees agree. If managers could improve this, they could reap a massive payback and could see a huge leap in discretionary effort.

NEVER FAIL TO BE RESPECTFUL

Charismatic leaders never fail to respect their colleagues and always lead by example. This means that they not only never treat other people with disrespect themselves, they never allow anyone else to either. They stamp on incivility when they see it. They foster mutual respect and courtesy.
They lead by example, and unfailingly treat people with courtesy, politeness and kindness. Even when they do have to discipline a member of the team, they do it in private, and respectfully – meaning they focus the conversation on the actions and outcomes at hand, rather than personal swipes at the employee.
They encourage diversity and are at pains to ensure that diversity encompasses race, gender and religion, as well as different working styles, personalities and generational attitudes. They know that genuine diversity leads to more agile teams, because it brings different ways of thinking together and unearths a greater variety of ideas, perspectives and skills.
They do, however, recognise that diverse teams can easily lead to people not always seeing eye to eye and to more disagreements – so they are always ready to step in and ensure that every member of the team is respectful, professional and even pleasant at work. Charismatic managers ensure that no one is disregarded; no one degrades another colleague, and no one makes another member of the team feel unworthy or unwanted.
Do you take care to manage your anger, or annoyance at work? Do you try to prevent angry outbursts, and curb provocative behaviours?
The benefits of respect in the workplace are enormous – civility leads to reduced stress, conflicts and problems in the team, because it leads to better communication and collaboration. That in turn leads to increased productivity, more agility and increased rates of innovation.
Respect contributes to job satisfaction, and also to employee engagement. It helps employees feel safe, trusted and willing to exert themselves in support of the cause. Good leaders never show disrespect to anyone.

Here are a few things to think about to ensure employees feel respected:

• Do you always treat people with courtesy, politeness and kindness?
• Do you encourage every member of the team to express his or her opinions and ideas respectfully and courteously?
• Do you treat cases of genuine bullying and harassment with urgency and firmness?
• Do you ensure that neither you nor any other member of your team ever insults, name-calls, disparages or puts down colleagues or their ideas?
• Do you treat everyone equally and fairly, no matter their race, religion, gender, size, age, nationality or personality?
• Do you ensure that people are provided with equal opportunities to take part in committees, special projects, training and development opportunities?
• Do you ensure that you criticise in private and praise in public?
• Do you treat colleagues in other parts of the company, customers and suppliers with respect? How you deal with others will set a critical example for how you want the team to behave