How to become a better leader

Research by companies such as Forbes, PwC and Kronos suggests that the workforce is changing. Millennials entering the workforce are staying at a company for shorter amounts of time and are often motivated more by goals and purpose than monetary rewards.

In fact, the New Work Order Report by FYA has shown that managers often overestimate the importance young people place on money, and underestimate the importance of purpose.

With the changing need of employees, it is more important than ever to be a good leader and not simply someone giving orders. In light of this, we have compiled a few tips and tricks to make this task slightly less daunting.

Collaborate

In order for staff to remain motivated, it is important that they feel the task is realistic, a little challenging and they have a sense of autonomy. That doesn’t mean you should not give any direction at all, or just ignore all the KPIs within your business. It means the methods to meet the set targets should be worked out in collaboration. Having ownership of a task can be one of the most effective ways to motivate your employees. As both employers and employees know, a task someone is motivated to do is going to be completed to a much higher standard than a task one simply has to do.

Don’t micromanage

It can be very tempting to watch every step your employee is making, especially when you have an idea of how the task should be completed. After all, you want your business to perform well and maximize opportunities. However, tying back to the idea of autonomy, micromanaging may be quite detrimental to your team’s efforts. As the market is constantly changing, you want to ensure that innovation and improvement are not hindered by micromanaging how your employees work, think and solve problems. As incredibly cheesy as it sounds, trust is essential to maximizing the value your team generates.

Be accessible

Once you have a motivated team that you trust (and that trusts you), you want to make sure you’re accessible to answer any questions on issues that may pop up. After all, if staff are coming to you for advice or insight, it is an indication they would like to learn from you or to make a decision they wouldn’t otherwise be comfortable making. I’m not suggesting you reply to messages in the middle of the night, but remaining accessible on business trips can be very important. Even more so, ensure you have apps and software that can travel with you. There is an amazing amount of solutions accessible today, many of which are easy to use even on mobile. Through technology, you will be readily available to answer any question, anywhere.

Always know what’s going on in your business

Now, this may seem a little contradictory to my second point on micromanaging. But trust me, it’s not. While you don’t want to tell your team exactly how they go about every detail of their day, you do want to make sure you know how you and your team is tracking. That way you can give accurate feedback rather than relying on your gut feeling, which, let’s face it, is often more dependent on a good night sleep than on actual results. Once you can easily share and display how you are tracking in relation to your set goals, and to previous months and years, you’ll be able to give useful feedback that will further improve and motivate your employees. Phocas has excellent solutions that can help you and your business.

Essentially what constitutes good leadership is teamwork in many different contexts. The best way to make sure your communication with your employees is the best it can be is by making sure you have the best possible help in doing so.

Now you have read our leadership tips – why not check out our some of our other content that can give you the upper hand on your manager role?