How often does your leadership team sit down with your employees? Is it only when things go wrong? Or to smooth things over?
Without face time, it’s hard to have a relationship with your employees, much less one built on trust and respect. These relationships are critical to your business because they encourage employee engagement, which pays dividends in productivity and loyalty.
Are you coming to terms with the lack of relationship between your managers and employees? Use these three tips to get started.
Schedule Regular Meetings and One-on-Ones
Regular meetings are a critical part of building relationships with teams. It’s not hard to see why. If you apply the same principle to your personal life, it becomes clear: if you don’t see each other, you fall out of touch. Emails only convey the basic message you’re trying to communicate. They leave out so much that is said in tone and body language.
You don’t need to meet once a day, but recurring weekly meetings can work wonders, especially with one-on-ones. You can build the relationship and keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening without dragging everyone into a daily meeting that should have been an email.
Create a Listening Culture
Your role as a leader is to delegate and take responsibility, but your role also includes listening.
A listening culture is essential for building rapport with every member of your team. It gives everyone a chance to be heard and also indicates that you give your full attention to each member.
When you can demonstrate active listening, you also create a culture where your team members listen to each other. You’ll find it takes less time to come up with better ideas and lets everyone know their input is valid and considered.
Set High Expectations All-Around
When leaders talk about expectations, they usually focus on productivity and communicate in terms of goals and KPIs. Goals are important, as is communicating them. But it’s also important to set expectations for your team’s behavior.
That doesn’t mean ruling out bad behavior. Behavioral expectations can focus on a “yes, you can” and “listen first” goal that complements performance goals.
Remember that you also need to demonstrate those expectations through your own behavior to reinforce their value and demonstrate your commitment as a leader.
It’s Never Too Late to Strengthen a Relationship
Relationships between leaders and their teams are a core part of job engagement. Remember: people don’t quit companies, they quit their bosses.
Thankfully, building relationships relies largely on your willingness to engage in face time, listen well, and model your expectations for your team. Those things are free, and you can start today.
Are You Looking to Expand Your Team?
Get in touch with Energi Personnel, a top staffing agency in Midland and Odessa TX and build new relationships with top talent today.
