Impactful leaders use these simple strategies to build workplace excellence.

A Leaders’ Role – What is your impact?

A leaders’ primary responsibility is to bring a group of individuals together, inspire them to work together in the pursuit of a shared vision, so that together they deliver results that meet or exceed expectations. It sounds simple, but as we know, it is not so easy. People vary, thinking varies, workplace culture drives or debilitates, and how a leader relates to his/her team will play a key role in each employee’s desire to perform.

Consider this flow and how you are perceived:

1. There is a mission, a vision, and objectives for most organizations. Leaders are hired to meet or exceed these objectives. 

2. Leaders recruit and develop talent to deliver results. Employee results are based on knowledge, skill, experience AND the workplace environment.

3. Workplace environment (hierarchy, rules, teams or silos, autonomy or micromanage, etc.) determines the level of employee engagement. 

4. High employee engagement cultures have higher profits, productivity, creativity, wellness, etc.

5. Leaders create the workplace environment (hierarchy, rules, teams or silos, autonomy or micromanaged, etc.) and with every interaction, with every word of recognition/praise, with every response to positive and negative behaviors; leaders determine social norms that either build trust and engagement or create mistrust and disengagement.

6. In your leadership role, what are you building?
   

Here are some simple things every leader can do right now to build workplace excellence:

1. Relate with each of your direct reports. Seek to know them as people, not just workers.

2. Understand that respect is offered only when the person providing respect feels respected. 

3. Discuss learning opportunities within jobs, or on teams, or in other roles.

4. Provide positive reinforcement daily or weekly (only then will critical feedback be accepted because he/she knows you have their best interest at heart).

5. Create jobs that allow for individual strengths and interest, autonomy of how the job gets done, connection to a bigger purpose – let them know their relevance to company and customer.

6. Hold people accountable. This motivates high performers and minimizes poor performance.

Heavey, C., Halliday, S. V., Gilbert, D., & Murphy, E. (2011). Enhancing Performance: Bringing Trust, Commitment and Motivation Together in Organisations. Journal of General Management, 36(3), 1–18.