We all have a natural tendency to put ourselves before others. This isn’t a shortcoming at all, and it helps us to avoid burning out at work and many other negative repercussions that can happen. When you are sitting in the leadership chair your thoughts on protecting your needs can actually turn into a selfish attitude. You are bound to lose in the long run if you are not prepared to put the needs of your employees before your own.
And in order to consider your employee’s well-being and perceptions, it becomes important to make a few changes in your business lifestyle.
Create a workplace that is suitable for the needs of the workers
Sometimes leaders tend to design workplaces to suit themselves and not the needs of the workers. Even down to the décor being used in the workplace. For example, in a beauty parlour, it becomes important as a manager, for you to design the workplace according to employee’s convenience, as they are the ones that form the first face and contact of your business. Hairstylists would want to be equipped with the current technology styling products and a separate station for better work productivity. You can do this by setting up a survey on your online learning experience platform for employees to fill out anonymously. This way, you can be sure that your employees will give their honest opinions.
Just because you like plants doesn’t mean the employees want to be surrounded by plants. Ask them what they want. It is your job to provide a trusting and comfortable place for the workers. You need to make sure you are engaged in making sure that the employees have everything they need in order to get the job done effectively. The biggest part of this is making your employees feel valued.
Your employees need to feel motivated, and like they are a part of the decision-making process in order to feel the need to stay back and devote time to the company in an efficient manner.
Improve the widespread impact
When the leaders are stuck in the focus of themselves, they end up limiting their influence. As a business leader, you need to ensure that your influence extends to your customers, the surrounding community and especially the employees. This is only possible by setting your selfish needs aside.
Leaders who are prepared to put their workers first are the ones who actually want to not only see their business succeed but also their employees. Investing in training certification programs ensures your employees will be continually developing. While being a mentor to your employees you can help each employee improve their skills which will not only help them but the business as they then become an improved contributor to the workplace. Employees become more able and reliable to meet their work responsibilities better. For example, in the hospitality industry, it becomes crucial to train and develop your employees according to the goals you wish for them.
Small changes can make such a big difference. If the boardroom chairs are cheap and uncomfortable, the staff are going to lose concentration fast, therefore, your business is going to suffer.
Learn to have interactions with employees that are positive and aid the employee to grow confidence. It is also important to ensure that you are not giving your employees negative feedback when something goes wrong. Take a better approach by showing them the correct manner to do the task or explain why it went wrong and offer guidance to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Building a better business is not possible without employees
If your business is thriving and everything is going as expected, then you need to sit back and look around you. The people sitting at desks, or out in the work van taking call outs are the ones who made it possible. If they all walked out tomorrow think about this question: could you run the business alone?
Focus on the needs of each employee and you will see a better performance. Whenever you make a change or an important decision within the workplace, ask yourself, have you got the opinion of your workers? Is this change more focused on your self-interests than anyone else?
As we always notice, the functioning within a beauty parlour is mostly always close-knit, rather than hierarchical. In most cases, the store manager treats the employees as family and asks their opinion on various matters such as the change in the nail bar colour pattern, new products and equipment to be introduced, new staff opinion, etc.
It is time to put your priorities into perspective and learn what is important and what isn’t around you. To achieve success, you need to reward and respect those who helped you get there.
