Avatar photo

7 Things You Can Do to Make Your Employees Love You

With the hustle and bustle of your daily routine, it’s easy to forget that a lot of people contribute to making those results happen every day.

More than ever, it’s important for your team to understand their role in providing those results. They need to feel like they’re contributing in a meaningful way each and every day.

If they grow more and more disconnected from your business vision, they’ll be less excited to come to work each day, and performance will suffer. Pretty soon your customers will see this attitude reflected in poor service or results.

7 things blog post

Great leaders have a heart for making it be about the team and not about themselves.

The result is employees who love working for them and cherish the opportunity to come to work each day.

But what does it take? Here are seven things that you can do today to get your employees to love you.

1. Show interest in THEM

As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we often get tunnel vision and forget about the people around us. If you’re interested in yourself and that’s all, they pick up on that. One way to keep yourself from forgetting about it is to think of your employees not just as a role, but also as individuals who want to connect. As human beings, we have this insatiable desire to connect with people who share our perspective and problems. Show a genuine interest in the people who work for you. Ask them questions about their family, their spouses and what they did last weekend. Then listen. If you make the conversation about the people who serve your business, it will fill them up. And that creates energy for your business future.

2. Recognize people for their hard work

Show your gratitude. When is the last time you looked someone in the eye and said thank you for the work they do. Whether you physically look them in the eye when they talk to you, or send a heartfelt note or email, it doesn’t have to be a big thing to mean a lot. I can ping someone on Lync to send an instant thank you and remind the recipient it wouldn’t be possible without him or her.

3. Be one on one and genuine

I think one of the things that make people feel great about what they do is to have job descriptions. Studies show that people with very clear job descriptions do a better job and are more engaged in trying to achieve results for their organization. Once the job description is clear, it’s becomes about developing an understanding about how the job fits into a clear vision for your organization.

4. Be humble

Be one of them. Be an equal. Be…well…not the boss! If you can approach people in a way that helps them understand that you are part of their team, it will make them more comfortable about connecting.

5. Be vulnerable and transparent

You, as a leader, have your strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, you drop the ball and let people down. Be honest about being human and having faults. It can create a very safe environment for others to be in. Be the first to admit where you’ve missed the mark. Be transparent in those things you fear or the many ways you’ve faltered. Your team will appreciate knowing that you’re not perfect and will have a basic instinct to help you overcome those failings and where you can improve.

6. Be empowering

So many bosses give people assignments and then micromanage every decision. But when you give people the power to make decisions and the freedom to fail, you can create a space where people feel free to bring ideas and energy forward.

7. Lead by example

Lead by your actions, not just your words. Be the person you want your employees to be. Allow them to hold YOU accountable. Actions speak louder than words. If you truly want them to be part of the team, you have to allow them to tell you where you missed the mark. If they feel safe enough to hold you accountable, that’s monumental.

 

“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” —John Maxwell

How are you leading? Let’s add to the list.

 

Want more? Try….

Let’s Get Vulnerable

Maybe LeBron James Isn’t Such a Bad Guy After All

Trust Begins with Leadership

One thought on “7 Things You Can Do to Make Your Employees Love You

  1. 5. Be vulnerable and transparent

    This reminded me of my all-time favorite quote.

    “Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.”
    — Mother Teresa

    You really seem to have a great group of people over there. If you’re up to fielding a question, I have one.

    I agree that job descriptions are important. I’ve been in some positions where the description of the role was clear and some where it was not.

    Do you have any thoughts on how you allow the descriptions to be clear without limiting folks to thinking or working strictly within their assigned roles? Let’s say you have someone with a passion for personal branding and platforms, which may naturally stretch their interests and skills across several roles within your business such as search engine optimization, content creation/marketing, WordPress, and social media.

    I realize your answer may depend on specifics, but if this individual came to you and wanted to be involved in all of these areas of your business, how would you handle that? Would you lean towards encouraging the individual to specialize their skillset within your organization or facilitate their involvement in all these areas?

    Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

Comments are closed.