Skip to main content

Eight Ways To Demonstrate You Value Your Employees

There are eight specific actions business leaders can take to show that they value their employees, according to Andrew Leigh, author of the book,  Ethical Leadership -- Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Business Culture.

Those eight behaviors are:

  1. Attention -- Pay attention to what people say to show your interest.
  2. Listen -- Make time to hear what colleagues, peers and employees have to say to show you care.
  3. Positive Language -- Find words and phrases to show employees they're needed.  Examples are, "We couldn't have accomplished this without you," "That was really useful."
  4. Document -- Put praise in writing to increase its impact.  Make clear where the credit belongs.
  5. Micro Sessions -- Create two-way communication sessions.
  6. Visits -- Schedule visits to teams and work areas.
  7. Stories -- Share stories that highlight unusual contributions and provide your personal response to them.
  8. Invite -- Ask people to contact you directly with their issues and concerns -- not to bypass the normal channels, but in addition to those channels. Then, set up systems to respond quickly and positively when people show the courage to contact you direct.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How To Harness Employee Experience Design To Attract And Retain The Best Talent

  Employee Experience Design (EXD) is designing with people and not for them. It’s a proven method for engaging and collaborating with your employees to help solve your most difficult workplace challenges.   You’ll learn all about EXD in the new book, Employee Experience Desing: How To Co-Create Work Where People And Organizations Thrive , by Dean E. Carter , Samantha Gadd, and Mark Levy .   “Many organizations are drowning in policies and initiatives. EXD is a way to reduce that burden while delivering better results both for employees and for the bottom line,” explain the authors.   The book includes inspiring stories from brands like Airbnb and Patagonia, among many others, including those in retail, healthcare, hospitality, apparel, and biotech. It describes the power that’s unleashed when organizations design with and not for their employees.   The first part of the book covers The Why of why EXD is so important and addresses legitimate – and tough –...

How To Survive, Reset And Then Thrive

“Uncertainty is here to stay. Rather than seeing it as an obstacle to overcome, integrate it into your strategic approach to invigorate your high-growth potential and outperform competition under any market condition,” explains  Rebecca Homkes , author of the book,  Survive, Reset, Thrive .   “Most books aren’t honest enough about how hard it is to  reset ,” adds Homkes. Yet, resetting and leaning into change is essential. “If you are ready to embrace change as a central element of your growth strategy, this book is for you.” Homkes’ book is a timely, comprehensive, and essential read for business leaders looking to take the next step toward ensuring high growth for their companies. The book brings together more than 15 years of Homkes working directly with high-growth companies of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries.   Survive, Reset, Thrive (SRT) is a practical and innovative  interconnected three-mode approach :   Survive : Stabil...

How To Build Great Work Relationships

Here is a book I wish was published back when I was early in my career. It’s called,  Bosses, Coworkers, and Building Great Work Relationships . It’s one of four books in the new  Harvard Business Review  ( HBR )  Work Smart Series .  The book includes adapted content from 20 articles that previously appeared on HBR.org.  “We probably spend more hours with our coworkers than with anyone else. So even if they’re not all perfect, it’s worth it to build connections that will provide you with support, help you network and learn, and keep your career moving forward,” shares HBR.  “This book helps readers make so-so work relationships better, keep the bad ones from bringing them down, and help them build lasting connections with incredible people.”  HBR adds that the book includes chapter takeaways and dozens of resources so that you can go beyond the book to engage in the media (video, audio, etc.) you learn from best.  As you read Bosses,  C...

How To Be A Superboss

Here are ten questions (or bundles of questions) you should ask yourself to ensure you are thinking and acting like a  superboss . These are from  Sydney Finkelstein 's book,  Superbosses . Do you have a specific vision for your work that energizes you, and that you use to energize and inspire your team? How often do people leave your team to accept a bigger offer elsewhere? What's that like when it happens? Do you push your reports to meet only the formal goals set for the team, or are there other goals that employees sometimes also strive to achieve? How do you go about questioning your own assumptions about the business? How do you get your team to do the same about their own assumptions? How do you balance the need to delegate responsibilities to team members with the need to provide hands-on coaching to them? How much time do you usually spend coaching employees? When promoting employees, do you ever put them into challenging jobs where they potentially might fail? I...

Why Your Middle Managers Are So Important

The book,  Power To The Middle , shows how  managers  are the crucial link between a company’s ground floor and top brass. “Too often company leaders view middle managers in a negative light as expendable employees who can slow down productivity and overall strategy,” explain the book’s authors and McKinsey partners  Bill Schaninger ,  Bryan Hancock , and  Emily Field .  “However, new KcKinsey research reveals that this outdated perspective needs to change and that well-developed managers  are  the strategy that companies must prioritize to succeed today,” they add.  Most importantly, by the end of their book, the authors sum up their insights and provide a  playbook  that will help senior leaders let go of the command-and-control mindset that has hobbled their managers for so long.  The authors define middle managers as the people who are at least once removed from the front line and at least a layer below the senior lead...

How To Energize Your Work And Life

Tom Rath  is the author of the incredibly popular  Strengthsfinder 2.0  book . His latest book is,  Are You Fully Charged? The book draws on the latest and most practical research from business and psychology and identifies the  three keys that influence most of our daily well-being, as well as our engagement at work : Meaning : doing something that benefits another person Interactions : creating far more positive than negative moments Energy : making choices that improve your mental and physical health "This book will  challenge you to stop pursing happiness and start creating meaning instead ," explains Rath. And, by doing so, you will rethink your daily interactions with the people who matter most. "The actions you take throughout every single day accumulate to shape your years, decades and overall life," adds Rath.  Even brief interactions count, says Rath, such as exchanging a smile or greeting while passing someone on the s...

Mission Versus Vision

Here's a good definition of the difference between a mission and a vision by leadership book authors George Bradt, Jayme A. Check and Jorge Pedraza: Mission - A mission guides what people do every day. It informs what roles need to exist in the organization. Vision - A vision is the picture of future success. It helps define areas where the organization needs to be best in class and helps keep everyone aware of the essence of the company.

Leadership Books For Your Summer Reading

Honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day On January 19 By Volunteering

As the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 19, volunteer or make the decision to volunteer in your community. King routinely asked “ What are you doing for others ,” and January 19th is the ideal day to ask yourself that question. The federal holiday was first observed in 1994 when Congress designated it as a National Day of Service, inspired by King’s words, “everybody can be great because anybody can serve.” You can turn to  Idealist (.org)*  and similar types of websites to find volunteer opportunities right in your neighborhood or nearby surrounding area. Visit the web site, type in your zip code/city, and you will be presented with a variety of organizations seeking volunteers. And, if you are a leader in the workplace, encourage your team members to volunteer in the community as individuals. Or organize team volunteer afternoons or evenings for your employees. *VolunteerMatch merged with Idealist in January 2025.

Frustration In The Workplace Is A Silent Killer

" Frustration in the workplace is a silent killer," claim authors Mark Royal and Tom Agnew in their terrific book, The Enemy of Engagement . Further, "in an organizational context, frustration is not as simple as failing to get something you want.  Rather, it involves the inability to succeed in your role due to organizational barriers or the inability to bring the bulk of your individual talents, skills, and abilities to your job." Royal and Agnew further explain that a staggering number of highly motivated, engaged, and loyal employees quit trying--or quit, period---because they feel frustrated . And what's causing all that frustration?  It's lack of enablement .  According to Royal and Agnew, as employees grow in experience in their roles, they begin to focus less on learning the ropes and more on achieving desired results.  In the process, they are increasingly confronted with enablement constraints that limit their ability to get their ...