With 2017 upon us, it’s a great time to think about how you plan to lead in the coming year. Here are several management “best practices” to adopt in 2017 and beyond.
Keep Your People Engaged
“Engagement” isn’t a buzzword. It’s the heart of a business. Workers who are interested in their jobs and care about the results work harder, do better and take the initiative to learn and to address problems proactively. Meanwhile, disengaged workers do none of these things – and have a higher rate of absenteeism and attrition, to boot. Get to know your people on a personal level so you can find ways to help them see the value in their work.
Appreciation is (Often) All the Reward You Need
Many managers tend to overlook the value of expressing appreciation for a job well done. It’s not that you mean to ignore your people’s hard work; it’s that, in the busy day-to-day shuffle, remembering to say “thanks!” can simply slip your mind. Recommit to expressing appreciation either verbally or with a quick email when someone on your team does well. Appreciation helps boost engagement and builds a team.
Open Up
Once upon a time, managers were advised to keep their personal lives, opinions and emotions entirely private in the interest of maintaining a “professional distance” between themselves and their employees. Times change, however, and today, managers who do this risk damaging their employees’ engagement and losing their own sense of just how well the team is doing. Instead, be willing to have honest conversations with employees. Let them get to know you as a person, as well as getting to know them. Doing so goes a long way toward building trust.
Welcome Conflict, Seek Clarity
Avoiding conflict tends to become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” in which conflict arises from the very methods used to avoid it. Instead, build a team in which conflict is welcomed for its ability to bring differing perspectives to light and to find an approach that incorporates all of them. When conflict does arise, focus on questions that address the issue in order to find a clear path through the problem.
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