It’s very well understood that for business leaders, your workforce is the everyday lifeblood of your company. It makes sense to lead your employees by example, but sometimes it’s necessary to go a step beyond that — to enter the fray in order to understand your employees’ roles and give hands-on guidance and feedback. This kind of conscious action and empowerment can motivate a team and encourage them to reach for even greater heights.
The most effective form of leadership will always be collaborative, where leaders and workers are all working towards the same goals, and helping each other along the way. Whether you’re a CEO or a middle manager, your team should be able to depend on you to lead and direct them, just as you should trust your workers to carry out their roles effectively.
Here are some ways that leaders can get hands-on and set up their employees and their company for success.
Lead a positive work culture
While you might feel the urge to focus on developing the business processes themselves, leaders should give care to how they should craft a positive company culture and work environment. For instance, honesty and transparency can not only help workers feel comfortable with your leadership, but it also promotes increased responsibility and encourages learning from your mistakes to continually improve. Constructing an environment with these kinds of positive traits is monumentally important for a business — research by Deloitte shows that 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of employees believe company culture is vital to a business’ success. The creation of a strong work culture a no-brainer for leaders looking to effectively lead their workers.
Listen to your workers — and take their advice
As previously stated, strong leadership is fundamentally collaborative — just because you’re the one in charge doesn’t mean you’re the only one with something to offer in regards to strategy or improving business practices. In a way, your employees actually might have more insight than you. Being on the front lines, so to speak, gives your workers a different perspective than the top-down view that you have.
By keeping in touch with the thoughts and ideas of your employees, you also stay up to date with the trends in your industry. The business processes that they regularly perform and can give feedback on will give leaders a holistic view of their relevant sectors and address rising needs both for consumers and your workers.
Encouraging your workforce to spot issues and use their expertise to propose solutions can lead to surprising innovations, as well as boost morale for your employees, who will feel valued as a result of accepting their advice. You never know who is going to come up with a great idea or a unique solution, so crafting a workplace environment that allows employees to pursue making these kinds of contributions is an immensely powerful way to set up your workers and your company for success.
Avoid descending into micromanagement
Micromanaging isn’t necessarily always a bad thing. When employees are starting out, walking them through every step of the process can make for an extremely valuable and impactful training experience, and shows your dedication in ensuring the employee does their best work, as well as your drive for your business’ growth.
But after your employee has learned their role, is it necessary to continue monitoring them so closely? A major component in a healthy relationship between leaders and employees is trust, and micromanaging is a behavior that can easily stem from a lack of faith in your workers; continuing to act in this manner can be frustrating and disheartening for employees who feel confident in their abilities and would perform better with more freedom. In addition, unnecessary micromanagement can ultimately be a waste for leaders, whose time would be better spent dealing with higher-level decisions. It’s important to be aware of striking a balance between showing your workers the ropes and simply letting them do the job you hired them for.
Being a business leader takes constant effort, though don’t let that fool you into thinking that you carry the burden and responsibilities of your business on your shoulders alone. Your employees are there to help carry out your company’s goals, and spending the time and resources to support them in their endeavors can ultimately bring the success you are constantly striving for. After all, success for your employees is success for you as well.
