Emotions and success are both strongly correlated when it comes to leadership. In order to be a successful leader, it is essential for the person to have a high level of self esteem and for their employees to as well. Letting emotions get in the way of making decisions is something that can greatly hamper the actions of a leader. Consider some tried and tested ways by which a leader can keep his/her emotions in check and hence make the best decisions for success.

In order to be a successful leader, at first a person must get over their emotional fears and then gradually work towards becoming the best that they can be. Otherwise, the consequences of holding on to those fears are grave and will definitely have a huge effect on the leader’s personal and professional life. There are quite a few ways that a leader going through such ordeals can get out of this situation.

The first step to improving one’s self esteem and getting over an emotional fear, is finding the courage to admit that something is wrong. The leader must realize that his decisions are being colored or controlled by his fear of something, or a strong emotion towards a person or event. Since it is difficult to pinpoint these decisions by oneself, leader can find it easier to take guidance and advice from maybe older more experienced personnel who can unashamedly point out his mistakes to him. The words of a superior hold great meaning and a person is much more likely to listen to them.

Next, making the right decisions also stems a lot from practice and experience. It is not logical to expect a person to make the right decisions right away. After making a mistake when taking a decision and letting it be controlled by their feeling, the leader will realize what went wrong and will not make the same mistake again. It also helps if the person has prior experience regarding these things by observing a senior or previous manager in action. Looking at the way they take decisions would definitely serve as a good way to learn.

Though many say that “follow your gut” is the best option when it comes to making a decision, studies have shown that following a gut instinct have not always shown to create the best results. For example, taking a decision when angry causes leaders to decrease the value of the associated risks that come with the decision and make reckless moves. It is a lot wiser to calm down and rethink before taking any sort of step when worked up. A good option would be to give the thought one night’s sleep – if you are still thinking that it is the right decision in the morning, then high chances it is.

Good decision-making skills need to be hones into employees as well and not just the leader. It is up to the leader to establish the appropriate facilities in order to help his employees. One such step could be introducing employee empowerment in the office. By giving away a bit of the responsibility to staff and allowing them to take the simple decisions by themselves, the leader is gently coaxing decision-making skills into his workforce.

It could also be possible that an employee is not being able to make the right decisions due to a recent fear or drama. In that case, the leader can take the necessary steps to make counseling facilities available to the employee. He or she can also send the employee to a training facility or off – the – job skills program. Training does not need to be merely office and work related; it can also come in the form of personal skill and development. Sending troubled employees to workshops or seminars where they can meet others who are going through similar things and can access the right sort of help can greatly improve the employee’s self-esteem and state of mind. Another option could be giving the worker some paid time off to rejuvenate and distress from the troubles of daily life. If the leader truly cares about the state of mind and health of his workers, then he will not flinch or back out from helping them in every way he can. Maybe, a relaxing vacation is just what an overworked and tired employee needs to get back in form?

The treatment that an employee receives from his boss and co-workers when going through such distress is also a major factor in his decision making. Employees should be treated with kindness, respect and consideration. A leader should remember that they are people too; keeping them mentally satisfied at work will greatly increase their productivity as well. Another measure that can be taken to increase the team’s self-esteem is celebrating improvements and achievements at the office. If an employee has just managed to secure a tough deal at work, then he deserves a celebration in his name to lie back a little. Celebrating achievements boosts a person’s confidence and will help beat the emotional fears which used to prevent him from fulfilling his true potential.

In order to obtain success in an organization or venture it is essential that each and every one of its employees is at their best health and working to full capacity. A leader is only as strong as the weakest link in his or her team – which is why the health of the whole team should come first and in no way be compromised. By conditioning mindsets to put aside emotions when making decisions, it is possible to obtain a skilled and powerful workforce.

Just a few things to think about as you help others and yourself make careers that are truly fulfilling. Life is all about he quality of choices we make. I hope this helps a little.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management and a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment.

You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

GET THIS NOW: Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

Setting high standards for employees is a good thing. This is conventional management wisdom that many leaders in just about every organization follow. High standards of achievement and professional conduct can be the most effective motivation a leader can create. The general idea is to encourage employees to always aim higher goals, and the only way they can do that is to push harder in order to perform better. In ideal circumstances, employees understand that leader has the confidence if they can accomplish much more than they themselves realize. It is an excellent form of provocation with great power to stimulate growth. Unfortunately, ideal circumstance is few and far between, rendering a good intention into bad managerial style.

 To make matter worse, some leaders fail to recognize (or simply are unwilling to admit) the difference between high standards for and unrealistic expectation from employees. The former is undeniably effective especially when leader is in the forefront of setting examples; the latter is dangerous. By always asking more performance from employees, less successful leader continuously forces everyone to work harder and prepare only to accept great results. The “already high standards” keep on going up to reach “unrealistic” level. At this point the leader will have to deal with an inevitable distress. Unrealistic expectations from employees have some obvious dangerous consequences:

 ·         Employees lose self-confidence: one of the most worrying outcomes of leader’s unrealistic goals and expectations actually happens to the employees. When people find themselves working with or for a leader who is impossible to please, it is only common to feel frustrated and angry. Failure to meet expectation really is not their fault, but merely because the goals are just unrealistic. In such situation, even constructive criticism from leader does not help. When employees feed into the constant negative feedback, they begin to feel inferior as if they cannot do anything right. After a short while, they begin asking why even bother trying if results are not satisfactory regardless of what they try and do. At one point, employees figure out that the best thing to do is to stop trying, and this is bad for the organization.

 ·         Weak organization: if employees are constantly criticized and pushed to perform better, they find it difficult to rise following a setback. Perpetual dissatisfaction on leader’s part will eventually drain employees’ creativity, motivation, mental endurance, and resourcefulness. One instance of failure to deliver as expected can be a learning moment, but leader’s relentless deprecation of their efforts is paralyzing. If the leader is constantly pushing employees to reach ever rising standards, the organization in its entirety is in serious doubt of achieving success in the wake of major problems.

 ·         Self-disappointment: without the ability to feel content, the disappointment can turn inward. It is often necessary to be satisfied with the way things are now, even when there are rooms for improvement indeed. The problem with unrealistic expectation is not that the organization will never achieve anything or that the employees are incompetent; the problem lies within leader’s struggle to take pride in any kind of accomplishment. Such leaders do not have the sense professional satisfaction and will continue to play down their own self-perception.

 Goal-oriented is an excellent trait of an effective leader, but it can turn into obsessive tendency toward perfection without proper managerial practices. While the idea of “pushing employees to their best” is great in theory, inadequate ability to honor and praise their roles or current improvement may actually lead the organization to failure.

 Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management and a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment.

You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

GET THIS NOW: Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

Never assume that all employees share the same drive for constant improvement. Some employees work because they love the jobs, while a lot others are only in it for the money. It is great if the organization is filled only with the former, but more often than not you simply cannot avoid having the latter as well. For the latter, it is a daily job for which they get paid, and harder work does not always mean getting a raise. On leader’s part, asking everyone to improve performance is routine, but it can be detrimental to the mind and feeling. When discontent becomes normal, you have to find ways to take advantage of it for the benefit of the organization. Here are some things you can do to help.

 ·         Expression of dissatisfaction must come with guidance to improvement: it is only natural that employees want to please their leader. However, there will be times when employees fail to deliver or perform as effectively as leader expects; just like the previous statement, it is also natural. After all, employees are human who sometimes have to learn from failures. Leader is human too who has the capacity to feel discontent about something unpleasant or when targets are not met. But leader has authority over others, so the discontent has more weights and stronger influence in organizational environment. Discontent can be a motivational asset, as long as you are willing to express it carefully. Pushing the employees to reach higher standards is only a good thing if those employees actually believe that you yourself can live up the expectation. Remember that an expression of dissatisfaction can turn into a demoralizing criticism if you fail to give them direction on how to achieve improvement.

 ·         Make employees know that you believe in their abilities and value their contributions: another way to express discontent is to wrap it with an appreciation and gratitude. It is just wrong to give harsh criticism for one thing that employees do wrong, when in reality they have done a lot of great things prior to the mistake. If you want others to take the critique seriously (and positively too), you have to show appreciation for their roles in the organization and make sure they know it. They need to understand that what they do here is important. Not only the job or position is important, but also the people occupying it.

 ·         Take a look back at the expectations you set and refine them: as soon as you get a gap between what you expect and what the employees deliver, remember that you are not the only person who has been in the same situation. Before you express an immediate reaction to show discontent, take a short pause to examine the expectation once again too. Instead of channeling the dissatisfaction to the employees, use some of the energy to reassess the overall situation. It is time to check if the team indeed has the capacity to reach the target, whether your expectation is realistic given the circumstances, or if you have communicated properly about it. The key is to show objectivity; if the mistake lies solely on the employees based on objective review, then you have every right to motivate the hard way. Otherwise, your discontent must be addressed to the real culprit.

 As a leader, you have the power to set high standards, demand better performance, and perhaps perfection in some cases. Raising the bar is a great form of motivation to keep the organization moving in the right direction to reach betterment and encourage the employees to achieve their full potential. Inappropriately setting high and even unrealistic expectations, however, can introduce a lot of negative effects to the organization, employees, and yourself. If employees’ performance often falls short of expectations, figure out why and learn to use and express the discontent in effective way.

 Sometimes, changing the way we do things just a little bit, can make such a significant difference. Every challenge is an opportunity to build trusting relationships that leads to greater efficiency and job satisfaction. Ultimately, leaders have the biggest influence on employee job satisfaction, which is directly related to lower employee turnover and operations costs. People are not machines and need to be treated as valued and respected members of a team.

Leaders often forget that just because they lead like leaders of their past, it makes them a good leader. Leading is an active and personal process that must be customized for each diverse member of a team. Most people need to be understood. So, leaders must make the investment of time to understand how to keep people motivated before it is too late. Relationships are fragile.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management and a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment.

You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

GET THIS NOW: Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

Occupying a leading position in an organization comes with serious risk of insularity. The higher a person stands in organizational ranks, they more that person is exposed to the risk of developing an inflated and eventually unmanaged ego. And as the ego grows larger, so does the risk of ending up in an insulated bubble. Failure to address such risk leads the person to lose touch with colleagues, put away from the real actions, get isolated from actual organizational culture, and have much less active communication with clients. Believe it or not, it is an uncommon issue with senior leaders. It is not even that difficult to see how this problem takes place.

As leaders move up in the organizational ranks, they acquire greater power with the position. They have the rights to make important decisions regarding the organization in general or individuals working for it. To some extent, a lot of employees rely on the leaders for survival. After all, being the forefront figure in any decision-making process is indeed the function of a leader. With such authority, employees have a strong tendency to please the leader; they listen more attentively to everything the leader to say, they agree more to opinions, and perhaps laugh louder at jokes that in reality are only marginally funny. In general they will do anything to make the leader happy to save their jobs, get a raise, and possibly earn some parts of the perks as well. These things do nothing but tickle the leader’s ego; the more it is tickled, the faster it grows.

It is called the hubris syndrome, defined as a disorder that can only develop in someone with possession of power, particularly if that power is associated with tremendous amount of success and held for a reasonably long period of time. There is actually nothing wrong with having an ego or any feeling or pride, but a leader must nurture it in the way to bring about organizational growth instead of personal benefit. Unmanaged ego is in fact a leader’s worst enemy for the following reasons:

·         Unchecked ego corrupts leader’s behavior: as the ego grows unchecked, it is easy to fall into the trap of narcissism. By nature, an organization is a group of people who work together to achieve the same goals. Although people are occupying different positions, the success of the organization is the result of collective effort. When leaders’ ego has grown too big, they are more likely to think that they alone are the architects of their achievements. This fallacy leads to the tendency to be rude, selfish, and sometimes to stand in the way of others from achieving the same level of success. The danger to organizational life is apparent in the face of setbacks and harsh criticisms coming from people outside of the bubble. Inflated ego prevents leaders from taking the criticisms with positive manner. It effectively builds a defensive wall that repels useful lessons potentially learned from failures.

·         Unmanaged ego creates bigger vulnerability: ego is a fragile. The bigger it gets, the easier it is to get hit. A leader with a massive ego always craves for approval or positive attention, and this tendency allows one to become easy target for manipulation. Such leader constantly wants to be seen as great, resourceful, clever, and generally perfect in all things. People who know this will take advantage of the situation by giving the all the right motivations to make the wrong decisions beneficial only to them regardless of the negative impact on the organization. The leader can no longer observe the circumstances with objectivity because everything has to be all about personal preference.

Finally inflated ego goes hand-in-hand with narcissism, which can only narrow down leader’s perspective and vision. An egotistical leader always looks for and utilizes only the information that confirms personal importance. In a work environment where objectivity based on facts is of the utmost importance to make every single decision, a leader with unmanaged ego is a dangerous person with all the power to drag everyone else to exhaustion and the brink organizational disaster.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. 

Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

 ·         Contradictory Values

 Employees can perform well for an organization in which the rules and cultures are aligned with their personal values. The same employees will almost certainly perform much worse if they work in the same positions but for a different organization with contradictory values.

 Even when organizations can evaluate every candidate properly through objective measures, they have strong tendency to overrate their own cultures. Any organization will say that it has innovative, diverse, performance-oriented, inclusive, and prosocial cultures; it encourages strong work ethics, accountability, and employee development. While some of those can be true, there is a good chance that a lot of the stated values are nothing more than wishful thinking instead of accurate self-assessment. An abrupt change in culture is as disruptive as it can be, but often necessary to optimize resources including employees.

 ·         Employee Disengagement

An expected side effect of poor alignment between employees’ values and organizational culture is disengagement, although it is not the only reason behind the lack of motivation. There is another culprit; one that is more obvious yet rarely pointed-out by employees: poor leadership.

 A leader needs to understand that poor performance sometimes is not solely because of employees’ incompetence but the result of poor dynamics of interpersonal relationships either among themselves or between employees and leader; it can even be both in an organization without a capable leader to resolve conflicts. Motivation is an excellent remedy and thankfully it comes in a multitude of forms. Enforcing good communication practices and developing conflict-resolution plans may not sound like motivations, but they are few among many effective methods to prevent disengagement and promote optimum performance. Just like the organization itself in general, a leader is required to perform objective self-assessment. Good leadership skills create a work environment conducive for optimum performance.

 ·         Organizational Politics

It is true that modern organizations are armed with more reliable data-driven methodology in talent management practices than in previous years, but room for improvements are still all over the place especially in relation to the basic extent of organizational politic. A person’s political savvy is (and has always been) a factor to advance careers, but unfortunately it is a factor that can stand on its own and overshadow technical skills and talents. The nepotistic side of organizational life will continue to exist; it is both toxic and persistent.

 In an organization with heavily-political culture, talents rarely speak for themselves. It does not matter how talented some employees are, they can never reach their full potential unless they partake in the political side of their career. Once they do, the actual talents useful for the progress of the organization are often underutilized in favor of politics. Put in mind that all organizations are essentially political, but some are far less contaminated than others.

 ·         Unsupportive Work Policies

 An organization will always expect that employees have no personal issues, or at least they don’t take personal disputes, difficulties with families, or any financial hardship to workplace; it is another fine example of wishful thinking. Employees have personal and private life, which can at times interfere with work performance. Good leader and organization consider the issue a “probability” rather than “possibility.”

 Supportive work policies put leaders in a position to understand employees’ circumstances and offer help in their professional capacity. This is not to say that the organization takes care of all employees’ problems, but it must provide supports so that employees can focus on delivering good performance and reach their full potentials at workplace instead of being consumed by other concerns. At the end of the day, both sides get the benefits of supportive employment policies.

 Every organization is only a strong as leaders allow their employees to be. When employees are failing to meet expectations, that is an opportunity to build a relationship, understand needs, coach and support an employee to success. Every employee was hired because they were the best qualified. A great leader must constantly find ways to help employees be there very best. Failing to do so, could cause an employee to lose interest and dedication, then start looking for an organization that could better support their potential, desires, and needs.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

Diversity, Cultural Competence, and Emotional Intelligence Training online here: http://www.leadership.do

Explore the Underlying Problems

 The last thing you want to do is jumping to conclusion. There can be reasons why some employees behave the way they do at work, and you will find a lot of possible culprits for examples conflict with coworkers, financial hardship, marriage problem, recent loss of family member, medical condition, or even mental health issue. Personal circumstances affect performance, and to some extent encourage unpleasant behaviors at work. If that is the case, you can in fact offer support such as counseling resources or recommend potential solutions to alleviate the underlying problems. As a leader, this is part of due diligence.

 Make Clear the Consequences

 Another possible reason a toxic employee shows no willingness to improve is the unawareness of negative consequences. People have tendency to deal with potential losses more seriously than with potential gains. They are also inclined to be more responsive anytime there is a real possibility of serious penalty. In other words, you may need to make threats and follow through if the person is hesitant to change. For most people, the likelihood of suspension without pay or missing out on a promotion makes a strong enough motivation to behave in more civil way.

 Get the Documentation Compiled

 You should hope that a toxic employee will eventually improve and be responsible for damages done, but there are times when you just have to accept that some people will not change. If at the end of the day there is nothing else you can do in your professional capacity to alter the situation, terminating the term of employment is the last resort. Before you do that, however, make sure to document all offenses made along with your responses so far. It is crucial that you establish a pattern of the employee’s behaviors and measures taken to address the issue. Formal complaints, video or photo evidence of poor conducts, performance evaluation records, and other relevant information would be helpful. The idea behind documentation is to protect the organization (and yourself) from legal consequences and show that you let the employee go for good reasons.

 It certainly takes a lot of time and energy – invaluable resources you can otherwise spend more productively to address more important issues – to fix problems with or caused by a single toxic employee. The negativity is sometimes too much to deal with, but put in mind that this is one of the responsibilities every leader must bear. As a leader, you are deemed capable of putting an end to the issue with the least possible consequences on productivity and organizational well-being.

 Ultimately, your company has invested a lot of time and resources in hiring, grooming and supporting each employee. It is a lot more cost-effective to listen to employees, come to a clear understanding of what needs to change and help them be more successful. Every “problem” is really an “opportunity”. Listen more than you speak and try to find win-solutions. Trust is earned and fragile. Earn trust back and help the employee know you want him/her to be the best employee possible and how their success is your success. Of course, we must own our own mistakes and do our best to be supportive leaders. Leadership is an active process, right?

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

As a leader, you always want people and employees in the organization to trust you.  Trust is the glue of all relationships and relationships are fragile. After all, you are in a position to make decisions for them and determine goals they must achieve. We need people to be able to discuss challenges, needs for support and confirmation of what is working well. Leaders have the biggest influence on organizational culture and every person in the organization affects the success of others by what they do and fail to do.  For any organization to run smoothly, employees need to know that their leader is indeed the right person to follow, not because of unpleasant consequences for disobedience but sincere respect and trust. Among many elements that affect the level of trust employees feel toward a leader, three of them stand at the top of the list.

 In order to leverage the diversity of strengths, talents and experiences of what each employee has to offer, leaders must remember to focus on these three key elements that build and maintain trust. We must remember that once trust is lose, it is difficult to earn back.  Where we put our focus, is where we get our results, so great leaders must focus on building and maintaining trust.

 How would your people rate you on a scale from one-to-ten for each of the following? How well do you think on a scale from one-to-ten do you think you do at each of these?

 Build and Maintain Positive Relationships – your employee doesn’t trust you just because you are their superior. However, any leader should be able to instill trust as long as one is willing to:

 ·         work on developing cooperation across different tasks with others

• ·         stay in touch on issues that concern employees
• ·         provide objective feedback in helpful manner, even when results are less satisfactory
• ·         act as an intermediary in resolving conflicts in the organization

 People – or in this case employees – trust others with which they have developed positive relationships. It is much easier to trust a close friend than an acquaintance you barely know, for example.

 Utilize the Expertise in Tasks at Hand – in modern organizations where positions of authority are granted only to capable hands with reputable educational backgrounds and experience in related fields, it is safe to say that every leader really has earned the rights to lead. Such leaders have better chances of being considered trustworthy because they are more likely capable of:

 ·         providing invaluable ideas for or contributions to day-to-day operation and achieving goals

• ·   anticipating problems and responding pro-actively
• ·         giving advices to those seeking for counsels
• ·         displaying good judgment in decision-making process
• ·         coming up with good solutions to address immediate issues

 In other words, employees need a leader who has both deep technical understanding of how the organization is (or should be) run and real-life experience as a subordinate as well

 Be Consistent – employees want their leader to be consistent in work attitudes, communication style, approach to resolving conflicts, and sometimes general behavior too. While to an extent this makes a leader predictable, employees are aware of leader’s expectation as well as what is expected of them. Sense of familiarity on leader’s part helps nurture trust. Consistency is showcased if a leader:

 ·         leads by example or be the role model

• ·         follows through on commitments
• ·         keeps promises
• ·         respects rules enforced for all regardless of positions

 An organization may go through changes big and small throughout the years, but leader must stay characteristically consistent to earn trust from employees. Rating yourself honestly and listening to feedback from your team about each of these can help you be the best you can be. We don’t always know what we do not know and must be honest about areas to be an even better leader.

 You don’t need to be perfect in every way to be an effective leader. However, the three elements discussed above should stand out among your other characteristics to earn healthy level of trust from employees. Trust doesn’t just happen; you have to earn it before you lead, and maintain it when you do. The road to reestablishing trust after you’ve lost it isn’t always straightforward, and often the efforts are much more taxing than acquiring it in the first place. The good thing is that you may not have to arrive at that point as long as you continue to engage with people from the framework provided with a focus on these three key elements that build and maintain trust.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about and like the article if you agree with it!

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

 There is going to be a time when millennials completely take over the leadership roles from their Baby Boomer and Generation X predecessors. It is only likely that they will continue to introduce big changes in organizational cultures as they already have. Here are some changes millennials have so far brought and been consequently adopted in workplace all over the world. It should be noted that no person fits into any “box” perfectly. We are all different and unique. Here are some ideas to consider to help you leverage the diversity of what people have to offer:

 1.      Preference for more diversity and inclusion

 Millennials are the most diverse generation in the United States (and probably all over the world, too). Therefore it is only natural that they feel more enthusiastic about diversity issues in workplace of which they think have been handled rather poorly by all previous generations.

 Whether or not current leaders want to admit, a claim of being a “diverse company” everywhere sounds more like a distant hope rather than the result of objective self-evaluation. Millennials take the issue of diversity even further by setting up the groundwork for a workplace composed of employees not only from different races and ethnicities, but also with varying characteristics, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic backgrounds, educational qualifications, and political inclinations as well. As Millennials take leadership roles, more organizations will become more multicultural.

 2.      Better utilization of automation

 Robotic technology has always been an issue, most prominently on the question whether (or when) artificial intelligence can finally replace human workers. Robots are more efficient in performing repetitive tasks for example in mass-production or assembly line. The previous generation mostly considers automation as big improvement on efficiency as the technology cuts production cost and eliminates errors almost entirely, because in fact it does.

 Millennials see the issue from a slightly different perspective. While they embrace and live with modern technologies probably since childhood, they understand the negative impact of artificial intelligence on human workforce or employment rate in general. They want better – yet not necessarily more – utilization of artificial intelligence. Ideas, creativity, and innovations are considered more important, and this is why leaders from this generation strive for the inclusion of employees from multiple cultural backgrounds.

 3.      Preparation for Generation Z

 Unlike Baby Boomers who seem to be a little bit surprised of how their successors embrace workplace culture, Millennials will do what’s necessary to welcome the next generation. In many cases, Generation Z is much better prepared.

 Millennials are raised by Baby Boomers and Generation X  in times when the country is somewhat in dreary political and economic conditions triggered by the 9-11 tragedy and Great Recession. Millennials are told that economic recovery would be slow and they probably wouldn’t enjoy the same quality of life as their parents did. In general, their expectations are quite low. On the contrary, Generation Z grew up in times of unprecedented economic growth, massive streak of job creations, and relative safety. They heard horror stories from older siblings, but the reality for Generation Z is mostly the exact opposite.

 However, Millennials have the advantage of being open-minded, and they embrace changes with willingness to learn. They know Generation Z grew up in preparation of good times along with anticipation of downturn, so they are ready either way. In terms of adaptability, both generations are on equal grounds, making the transition in the future feels less radical. Keep an open mind when leading people. Try to meet people where they are at and listen to what is needed from you as a leader. Supporting people can look very different to each person. Engage with employees in a way that allows you to understand what is important to them and do your best to be flexible. These actions will earn respect, trust and loyalty.

 Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about.

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

 An indispensable trait of excellent leaders is adaptability. They know the type, size, industries, and cultures of the organizations they lead, or else it is impossible to craft an effective action plan and practice proper management of employees. In for-profit organizations, the differences between small and big companies are pretty noticeable from the number of employees, annual revenues, and available resources. Despite the obvious distinctions, inexperienced leaders often make mistakes by implementing big-business leadership methods in small companies. Among the most common blunders are listed below.

·         Overly ambitious goals

The main reason many people fail to accomplish their New Year’s resolutions is because the objectives are too big to achieve within one year. Some set their expectations high without any second-thought about where they stand at the moment. For example if one of those resolutions is to purchase a brand new sports car, at least consider how much money you have in the bank right now and whether next year’s income will cover the cost of ownership. When put into a context of running a business, setting up goals must be consistent with the available resources.

Unrealistic goals set your employees to failures. You are not running big corporation with massive financial power to hire a considerable number of professionals. Be reasonable with the objectives. It takes time to increase business size and expand the company. Details of the objectives are also important. While it is true that every business is striving to meet and exceed expectations, a failure to reach goals does not mean everything is lost. Details of how failure happened and how far the company has gone to reach the target are still useful data to make adjustments in the future.

·         No other form of incentive but money

With big businesses, there is also big money to earn. Employees can be highly motivated to perform to their best for they are promised monetary bonus of impressive amount. Unfortunately you cannot play the same game in companies of smaller scale. The good thing is that employees in small business most likely understand the situation. They have reasonable expectations; otherwise they wouldn’t apply for the job to begin with. 

There are many other forms of motivation than money. It is easy to get acknowledge for good performance in small company, mainly because the objectives are not sky-high and partly for the lower number of internal competitions. Acknowledgement for good performance is an excellent motivator; so are stronger sense of ownership, better social consciousness, training programs, and advanced opportunities. The seemingly non-existent hierarchical order in a small business also makes employees feel more appreciated because their ideas are more likely heard and considered.

·         Micromanagement

Having fewer employees makes communication easier, but it does not mean leader can always closely observe what they do. Increased control is bad idea in management. Instead of showcasing strong confidence in employees’ collective capability to get the job done, micromanaging-leader demonstrates the lack of trust and restraints creativity.

In small business, leader is prone to address every small thing that happens inside the office. Every employee has different approach to tasks at hand, and some even think outside the box. Focus on results rather than constantly second-guessing how they do their jobs. Not only is micromanagement time-consuming, but also demoralizing and inefficient.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about.

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about leadership effectiveness. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

Personal responsibility and having a sense of ownership in on organization are the roots of accountability. Leaders and employees are of equal standing in this case, despite the differences in scope of duties. Regardless of position and titles in the organization, all must be held accountable for their decisions and actions with regard to their roles and responsibilities. No organization cannot function efficiently and effectively as possible without accountability. Being accountable is one thing; making it a part of organizational culture is another. The short answer is that accountability starts at the top and then it is the leader’s job to be the most influential proponent of the idea. Leader can do this by committing to roles and responsibilities, building good lines of communications, and fostering mutual collaborations among employees.

 1.      Be committed to your roles

 The best way to ask employees to perform their duties well is to be a role model of that. You can only expect others to do what they are assigned to do if you practice the same principle. Consistency lays the path to accountability; employees will expect you to keep promises and deliver exactly as planned.

 Leaders, just like employees, are held accountable for every decision they make. Discrepancy between what’s said and done leaves the door open for distrust to enter. Trust is always being tested. Trust is the glue of all relationships. So, leaders must never fail employees on giving trust or violating expectations.  Employees also turn to leaders for guidance because they see someone of authority as the most reliable person to provide suggestions. Consistency and reliability are the personal traits that put you in a position to lead others. So commit to your role as a leader by nurturing and influencing employees to develop the same traits. If all employees are committed to their roles and responsibilities, accountability is easy to come by.

 2.      Build comprehensive lines of communication

 By definition, the term “comprehensive” means including all aspects or elements of something. Having a comprehensive line of communication helps you monitor performance and results across all work areas. A leader alone can hardly cope with all the departments and on-going projects, but an always-open channel of communication ensures good flows of information as everything happens. To some extent, you can almost call it a practice of “constant observation” of performance. Effective coaching to help employees be successful can only happen if there is clear understanding of where the may be knowledge or skill gaps. You must be able to correctly diagnose the problem, before you can give the correct remedy.

 In an ideal world, employees should always perform well whether or not they are under supervision. However, good flows of factual information to the leader is a preventive measure to minimize the possibility of not being disciplined. That way nobody can escape from responsibilities of work, hence being accountable. On the more positive side, good flows of information also allows for quicker delivery of suggestions and feedback.  Great leaders must understand what is going on and remove obstacles, give proper support, and resource. Set each employee up for success by understanding them, their needs, and challenges.

 3.      Foster collaboration

 When people talk about accountability, most of the time it carries a negative connotation that a person is to blame because of a wrongdoing. In a larger organizational context, however, accountability refers to doing the job well in accordance to the instructions and expectations. All employees can be accountable if there is mutual collaboration or good interpersonal relationships among them in which everyone is friendly, supportive, and helpful as far as their professional capacity allows. While employees do not answer to their own peers, the sense of belonging to the same group empowers them to hold each other accountable and get the job done for the benefit of organization in general.

 The leader is responsible to help employees improve performance and guide them to success. Accountability is among many different personal characteristics to develop. One thing to remember is that the leader cannot simply demand accountability and make it happen. There is a learning process which may unfortunately involve employees making mistakes. Remember that a workplace is a learning environment where ideas and achievements as well as failures and disappointments are all natural aspects. The best kind of accountability is one that grows from constant learning process rather than a trait forced upon those unwilling to learn.

 A leaders’ attitude and approach to taking action can lower or increase levels of trust. Employees must feel adequately supported and their diversity and authentic-self must be respected too.  Leaders have the biggest influence over an employee’s success and job satisfaction. It is important to remember that when leaders fail to support an employee properly with the right kind of care, communication, and respect, they may lose motivation, and start looking for work in a workplace that is more fulfilling—potentially making your competition stronger with the training you provided the unsatisfied employee. It is usually more cost-effective to take time to listen to employees, provide clear expectations of accountability, then coach employees to success while giving the proper support and resources to become experts in what you need them to do.

 Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about.

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity trainer who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment.

Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook

 As you may see the common theme in all my articles, leaders make the biggest impact in any team or organization. Sometimes leaders may not realize that what they may be doing or failing to do, may be influencing employees to develop a negative attitude or actions that may be harming the team or organization. Leaders’ actions are always being observed. So how they treat others and what they do must be thoughtfully done. Coaching employees for success and empowering them are keys to success. Employee engagement that starts with listening to understand can be powerful in making necessary changes to the way things are done. Every employee does and can make a difference. Leaders must recognize it and also do these other things:

 ·         Plant the Idea of Success

 The ultimate destination of every small business is to earn success. Make it obvious to employees that success doesn’t just happen. Before the company can get there, it has to go through many hurdles along the way. It is going to be like a race with many capable competitors yearning to be the first. At the starting line, leaders need to paint clear picture of what success looks like and plant the idea to employees’ minds. Therefore all decisions and actions are aimed toward reaching the destination. It is a big agenda for which you need all hands on deck. Sense of urgency and importance keep everybody on the same page, otherwise they take their jobs lightly or may even put personal gains above the company’s purpose.

 ·         Stay Focused on Targets

 A common mistake some leaders make is to aim at many targets at the same time. It may not be a problem in big a company with hundreds (if not thousands) of employees and broad range of departments. Of course you can also implement the same approach to small business, as long as you have enough employees to handle all the tasks by setting up clear division and assigning projects to competent individuals or teams.

 Chasing multiple targets is alright, but be very careful on utilizing the available resources; there is always a risk of doing none well enough to achieve the intended results. Limitation in resources can be balanced-out for performance by effective allocation of budget and employees. Also, it is easier for everyone to stay focus on the job when they don’t have to go in many different directions.

 ·         Detail Everyday Goals

 It does not matter if you run small or big business, employees need to be well-informed about the goals to achieve. Keep the line of communication open to answer questions from and provide details to employees. Particularly in this area, small businesses have big advantage over their bigger counterparts.

 In spite of all the rage on how modern technologies have seemingly shrunk the world and rendered distance irrelevant in communication, direct face-to-face conversation remains the best way to deliver message. It may not the fastest method to spread information, but still by far the most reliable. Otherwise there is no point of having a meeting. In big companies, face-to-face communication is almost impossible considering the large number of employees to reach. On the other hand in small business, it is not that difficult to get everybody in the same room every morning in most cases—even if it is only for a few minutes to get on the same page. Meetings must always be seen as meaningful. So, leaders must make it worth everyone’s time to show up. Leaders must listen to understand the ideas of employees, and they must also show the respect of considering applying the ideas of others. Shutting employees down or fake listening can have long-term negative effects.  

 Use milestones to detail the goals on daily/weekly basis. Make time for question and answer to clarify confusions or provide additional guidance. Another advantage of direct communication is the increased level of employee engagement. What we focus on is where we will get results. Everything is connected to time, so having shared clarity on what the priorities are is key to success at accomplishing daily goals which leads to accomplishment of building a reputation of customer/stakeholder satisfaction.

 Small businesses may not even have HR departments to create formal job classifications and descriptions. However the advantage it has in communication practices helps overcome the difficulty in describing individual’s roles and responsibilities. Employees tend to perform better if they know their priorities for the day and what resources are allocated to them. Based on that information, employees carry out their duties with higher level of confidence as well, knowing that they don’t stray too far from the destination.

 Leading is an active process. Successful organizations/companies recognize that properly leveraging the diversity of ideas of their teams and empowering people to make good decisions that build their reputation brings successes one action at a time. Teams are only as strong as leaders allow each of their people to be who they are and trusts them to give their best with proper coaching, controls and listening.

Make good choices and have a great day! Only you get to choose how you feel about it!

Thanks so much for reading! Please share this with someone you care about.

Dr. Paul Gerhardt is a skilled leadership and diversity training who builds customized workshops online or at your workplace. He is a tenured professor of management. He is a diversity and leadership well-respected and trusted trainer who helps organizations get amazing returns on their training investment. Visit www.SupervisionEssentials.com for more great free articles and to learn more about Leadership Training. Dr. Gerhardt is the author of several publications available on Amazon.com, including Diversity at Work, The Diversity King; Leadership Lucy and the Leadership Handbook. Consider inviting Dr. Paul Gerhardt to do customized leadership or diversity training at your organization. Most organizations find that diversity and leadership training by the right trainer yields a significant instant return on investment. You can get your FREE COPY of the Leadership Handbook by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/LeadershipHandbook