What Makes a Positive Leader in The Workplace?

- Leadership

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by Steve Dell Hypnotherapy

Being a manager or a team leader comes with a great deal of responsibility. Not only are you important in terms of your job role, but you are also someone that should be approachable, respected and positive in order to create the most encouraging working environment for your employees.

Make sure that you practice simple things such as giving recognition and rewards to people when they have reached certain milestones or simply remind them when they’re doing a great job. Compliments go a long way as they make people feel appreciated, and when you feel valued in your job, you’re much more likely to work harder and be more motivated.

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Learn more about the importance of employee engagement, about the difference between extrinsic and instrinsic motivation as well as Management 3.0’s CHAMPFROGS motivators.

Positive Leader Tip #1: Be a Strong Communicator

Communication in the workplace is essential for building the best relationships with employees and it is also likely to create an overall more positive environment. Listening to input from members of the team and potentially implementing it will show that you value the thoughts and feelings of your employees. Not only do you need to be a great listener, but you also need to be open with your employees and keep them up to date with anything important taking place in the office that may impact them.

Positive Leader Tip #2: Provide Sufficient Support

It’s important for any great leader to provide their employees with tangible support in the form of training, materials and any other relevant resources needed to get the best out of their workforce. If a manager expects too much from their team but doesn’t give them any development or training opportunities, then this will result in an unmotivated office and people that feel unable to deliver the required work and improve. In addition to providing tangible support, you also need to ensure you offer intangible support which is more emotionally based. This consists of engagement, trust, respect, and empowerment.

Rather than having a systematic approach to the way that you distribute your work, get your employees more engaged by making them personally interested and invested in a project. Provide them with an incentive to encourage them to go above and beyond as this will also give them more of an emotional attachment to the project if they feel they are personally developing whilst completing it and will be rewarded at the end.

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Learn more about how to develop competence and how managers must create an environment of continuous learning, thus contributing to the development of competence.

Positive Leader Tip #3: Be Consistent

A good leader should be consistent in their approach so that employees know exactly what to expect and where they stand. You need to be assertive but remain fair at all times. In terms of fairness, ask yourself, are you treating everyone equally? Treating everyone equally and consistently will allow people to have much more respect for you and it makes it easier to know exactly what certain boundaries and expectations are.

Positive Leader Tip #4: Deal With Conflict Effectively

Facing conflict and disagreement in the workplace isn’t the nicest job as a manager, however it is definitely your responsibility to do your best to deal with it appropriately to ensure the best outcome. You should immediately confront the issue calmly, and speak with all parties involved to see how you can solve the problem with everyone’s best interests at heart as quickly and professionally as possible. Keeping the conflict contained before it escalates will prevent the issue from developing into an even bigger one.

Overall being a strong and positive leader is crucial to the success and happiness of your employees. A good leader dedicates their time and attention to their team, and ensures that they are always taking the necessary steps to improve the performance of staff members whilst maintaining a positive and motivating environment.

Photo Credit: Riccardo Annandale (Unsplash)


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