Author: brigette

Trust is the foundation of any successful relationship, whether professionally or personally and when it’s broken, it is extremely hard to repair. I had a supervisor, I couldn’t even send an email without her approving it first. She was so inflexible that it was overbearing. I felt stifled. When employees feel they can’t trust their boss, they feel unsafe, like no one has their back, and then spend more energy on survival than performing at their job.

The corporate world is littered with micromanagers. Sadly many organizations prefer these managers because they seem to be on top of, and in control of everything. In the short term, they may produce results but in the long run they leave a trail of destruction in their path.

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to to. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” —Steve Jobs

Employees want meaningful work, and they want autonomy in how they work. Train, coach and mentor employees and ensure they are given clear objectives. The typical ‘bad boss’ spends their time directing employees rather than empowering them. It’s sad that in many organizations, managers think to be effective they need to MICROMANAGE employees.

A manager’s job is to provide guidance and support. It’s facilitating a healthy environment where employees can perform at their best. Always be quick to recognize, appreciate and reward employees’ efforts. Micromanaging is the opposite of empowerment and it creates toxic work environments. It breeds resentment and disloyalty. If you hired someone, it means you believe they are capable of doing the job, then trust them to get it done.

Micromanagement is a complete waste of everybody’s time. It sucks the life out of employees, fosters anxiety and creates a high stress work environment.

Micromanagement chokes the growth of the employee and the organization and fosters mediocrity. When you empower employees, you promote vested interest in the company. Empowered employees are more confident, more willing to go the extra mile for employers, and more willing do whatever it takes to care for customers. The best ideas and advancements are a result of empowering your team.

Check out my latest Bestselling Book

 Leading the Workforce of the Future

People don’t leave bad jobs, They leave bad bosses. Most of the time an employee has an issue with a company, it is something relating to their boss.

Here are 7 reasons why employees have no loyalty to corporations:

1. Not valuing employees or appreciating their contributions.
2. Inflexibility in breaks, lunch time, work from home, sick days, family leave, and further education.
3. Trespassing on their personal time. Asking them to leave the office late, work on weekends or interrupting them while on vacation.
4. Showing no interest in their personal development.
5. Not caring about them as a person or showing concern especially when they are dealing with illness, bereavement…etc
6. No Integrity – Always looking to blame others and not standing up for your team.
7. Lack of trust – Micromanaging them. You monitor their every movement.

If you treat people right they will treat you right 90 % of the time.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

I received this email from Lisa:

“I had a family emergency. My father had fallen sick. My boss had someone from the office drive me to the hospital. He even told me to take as much time as I needed when he passed away. Their compassion and consideration really helped me through this difficult time. It’s been 5 years since this happened and guess what – I am still with this company. If you have my back, I have your back. I would go to the moon and back for my boss.”

 “ Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Leadership is about people. Your business is nothing more than the collective energy and efforts of the people working with and for you. For loyalty, there has to be a relationship that develops between employee and employer and this develops over time through trust that gets built and sustained. Transparency, authenticity and walking the talk are essential for building trust. Being open with employees promotes an engaged workforce. Threats and intimidation only yield temporary results. You can’t keep throwing your employees under the bus and expect them to give their all. Show people that you care about them and are interested in their welfare. Loyalty is a two-way street. If you want loyalty from employees, you must first give it. If you want employees to go the extra mile, you have to be willing to go the extra mile for them. It works both ways.

” Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” ~Richard Branson

The corporate is full of managers and lacks leaders. Leaders build people up. Managers pull people down. Leaders are those comfortable and secure in who they are whilst managers are competing with their subordinates. Our system has fallen into a self-reinforcing command loop construct as follows: Increase shareholder value at all costs without regard for the human factor. Sadly, if you do not cure the cancer in the root of the tree, not only with the branches and leaves die; but so will the the tree.

Employees know when they are on shaky ground. If a company has no loyalty to it’s employees, why should they be loyal in return? If we treat people only as the means to an end, we will never have their loyalty. Don’t just consider them as a robot on your cog-like production line. Demonstrate that you value people and they in turn, will take care of the business. If you want loyal employees – Treat your people well!

Check out my latest Bestselling Book

 Leading the Workforce of the Future