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‘’The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.’’
—Kenneth Blanchard
Who wants to be Unpopular?
The answer very plain and simple - NO ONE!! Employers are no different either. To be an entrepreneur is to be an employer. Often the toughest thing for an entrepreneur is to be popular in the eyes of their employees. As much as you want to be on everyone's good book, you’re often bound to make hard decisions while handling a team (i.e: giving critical feedback to someone, laying off etc.)
If you search online about being a great employer then one thing all articles and blogs will have in common is that they are all referring to a person who can influence the crowd. You can only boast about being a great employer when your team is influenced by your act, vision, and words.
Why does an entrepreneur need to be a great employer?
Because nothing great can be done alone. Because you will need someone to carry on your work as you progress into new things. Because you need to focus on the business while your team looks after the regular operations. Because your business needs to survive and sustain without your micro involvement. Because a team is always better than one person.
If you are someone who aspires to be a great employer, keep on reading. You will find a compilation of some dynamic tips and tricks on your route to becoming the employer every entrepreneur should be.
Be an Active Listener
Communication is the key. This is the essence of every great relationship. You need to listen ACTIVELY to communicate effectively with your employees. Just the way you expect them to hear each and every instruction that comes from you, they expect to be heard too. The more you communicate, the more you enhance the understanding between you and your workforce. This cannot be built in a day, rather be a daily practice.
Organise monthly town hall sessions, quarterly lunch programs, team building activities, ask whereabouts when you arrive at the office. This will unequivocally improve your communication with your team. For remote teams, it is essential to meet in-person rather than getting together virtually. The power of human interaction cannot be eliminated for good from the picture as all your attention is in the activity when you are there in person.
If you are a team working remotely and would like to meet up with your team in Dhaka, arrange a meeting at Moar for your team building sessions.
Practice Empathy
Empathy is one of the most important attributes of a good employer. It is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand the situation they are in. A good manager must practice empathy at the workplace. If you empathise with your employees, it will only strengthen your relationship with them. It will also increase their productivity at work and their job satisfaction.
According to atspoke.com, 92% of HR professionals recommend that an empathy practising workplace plays a vital role in employee retention. Pay attention to the details. If someone is not performing as they should, try to understand the reason behind it, ask them what’s happening, if anything happened that’s hampering their performance. Also, being mindful while providing feedback is another form of empathy that helps employees to perform better.
Offer Flexibility
If there’s one thing that we have learned from the pandemic, it is the necessity of flexible working. Flexibility in work offers unimaginable opportunities and benefits to the employees. Also receiving flexibility at the workplace can develop a sense of gratitude among employees.
Although, arranging flexible work conditions can be tricky for a lot of companies. But as we convert to a more digital world, flexible workspace will be the future of work. Letting people work according to their pace also allows them to grow both personally and professionally. However, if you want to create a flexible work environment you must introduce a way of measuring accountability to keep the team moving forward.
Ensure the Right Environment
The kind of environment you provide to your team is one of the core determinants of how they are going to perform. If your employee is walking into a poor office environment every day, then you cannot expect an optimistic output from them. The willpower to work for anyone comes down to zero if you cannot ensure the right environment for the team.
The right workplace environment is an ensemble of multiple factors. Workplace culture, physical environment, policy & practices. To make sure that all employees are treated in the same manner institutionalising transparency, accountability, and zero discrimination at the workplace is also a job that must be done by a good employer.
Actions are reciprocated. The kind of behaviour you offer will be reciprocated towards you. They aren’t always visible from an employee's response. However, it can be measured from their workplace satisfaction and productivity of the team. We hope you will incorporate these 4 key elements in your team management for better results.
