Leadership is a high-contact sport and hard work if you want your team to excel. However, management derailment studies predict a high failure rate for managers. Research also shows most employees aren’t buying into their leaders or companies, and are disengaged from their work. You don’t have to succumb to these negative results. If you pay attention to these ten things employees want in a job, you will have a real opportunity to create a team of inspired and highly engaged employees. That’s good news for your employees and for your career.
Clear Expectations and Goals
Give your employees a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities and objectives. Do this one on one and with the team. Always remember, this isn’t a one-time event. Do it periodically through the year: monthly to quarterly. Conducting performance reviews only once a year doesn’t cut it today. Most performance problems come from a lack of clear expectations or goals and a lack of recognition.
Recognition and Praise
The better people feel about what they do, the more they want to do it well. Recognize them for progress, a job well done or for goals achieved. Do the same for your team as a whole. Be genuine, creative and keep learning. When consulting with clients we always find ways to do individual and team recognition at meetings. Interestingly, most client managers seldom think of it on their own.
Communication
As simple as it sounds, keep people informed as a team and aware as individuals. This means that you need to communicate through meetings, one on ones, phone conferences, email, Skype and texts. Learn to do each of these appropriately. For example, emails and texts are not the right place for negative news. It also is not an excuse for poor communication if you are separated by distance from some members of your team. In most employee engagement surveys, leadership communication often has the poorest ratings and the most negative feedback.
Growth
People become more motivated when they can develop their skills. Be sure to learn to delegate effectively. Find ways to give your team ample opportunity to expand their capabilities in new areas. If an employee is interested and capable help the person advance in the company.
Trust
Follow-through on your commitments, be genuine and conduct business in an ethical manner. Admit mistakes. There are way too many examples in the media of ineffective and fallen leaders. You don’t have to be one of them.
Responsibility
People want to be great and if they aren’t, managers are usually the obstacle. Listen to your team’s ideas and get them involved in fixing problems. Coach effectively and regularly, so that all team members always know where they stand-good or bad. When they bring you a problem, hold on trying to solve it. Ask, what have you done so far? What do you think should be done? Teach them to think through and solve their own problems.
Respect
80% of employees say they don’t get respect on the job. Don’t have secrets, don’t intentionally instill fear in people, and treat employees as adults not like children. Be as open and as honest as you can. Build up your team; don’t beat them up. You earn respect by giving respect.
Pride in the Work
Most people want to do a good job. This fuels self-motivation and pride. Create a positive upbeat working environment. Have some fun while working hard. Teach teamwork, and it will pay significant dividends for your employees and for you.
Learning
On-going training is a must to maintain current job skills, but even more importantly to add to them. Fortune’s magazine’s annual list of the world’s best companies shows that the highest-ranking companies give employees 40-60 hours of training and education each year. How about your company? How about your team?
Achievement
People want to win. Work hard to align people with the right role where they can succeed. Persevere to eliminate obstacles for your team, and be an advocate for your employees’ success. Avoid changing direction indiscriminately, not dealing with poor performance or setting unrealistic goals, because these behaviors can lead to frustration and defeatist attitudes in your employees.
Consider these ten areas for motivating and engaging employees. Help your employees be successful, and you will be successful as a leader. What’s the payoff for
following through on this?
- Higher employee engagement and productivity
- Lower employee turnover
- Better internal teamwork and communication
- Increased employee morale and commitment
- Improved customer service, sales and quality
- Career advancement and success
In summary, if you want your people to be better, you have to be better as a leader.
