There are few ways that you can improve your office atmosphere more than making sure that you empower your employees as much as possible. Here are some tips on how you can do that…
Set Your Ego Aside
As the boss of a company, or as a manager, you may feel that you’re the most important person in the room – you earn the most, you have the most skills and experience, et cetera. But it’s absolutely crucial to set this ego aside – partly because it would be extremely off-putting for others to deal with but also because there will always be someone around who’s smarter than you in almost any area out there. Putting your ego aside means that you can learn from the people you’re working with and that they can give you as much growth as you’re giving them.
Give Them The Information They Need
It’s important to make sure that your employees have all the information they need to be able to make decisions and to carry out what they need to do without asking you for help or for confirmation all the time. Trusting them with that information is a way for you to shake off any worry when you go on vacation or take a day off. Make sure they’re aware of all the processes within the office – for example, if the computers go down then they know to call the managed IT services company that you work with.
Make Sure Your Office Is Flexible
Flexibility is often key to people’s happiness in their work lives. If they get their work completed, does it matter if they’re in the office from 8-4 or from 10-6? Can parents who need to pick their kids up work from home for a couple of hours in the evening so they can leave early? Can you be flexible for any employees who may have other issues in their lives, such as caring for sick or elderly relatives? Are people able to work from home so that they can save the time, energy and expense of a commute? Are you happy for people to attend doctors’ appointments during the working day so that they can feel as healthy as possible and achieve as highly as they have the potential to do? Allowing people this flexibility will make everyone happier.
Listen To Them Carefully
Communication is absolutely key in workplace environments. If someone has an issue, listen carefully to them so that you can work out how to fix it. You have a responsibility to people to do your best to make sure that they feel comfortable at work, and if they don’t, you need to work out what the problem is. You want to make sure that the people you work with are happy to tell you the truth instead of what they think you want to hear.
Let Mistakes Go
It can sometimes be very easy to get frustrated when people make mistakes at work, especially when what they should have done is entirely obvious to you. But it’s important to remember that everyone has different life experience and a different work history, that nobody is perfect and everyone is in a different stage of development – and of course that even though you’re now at the head of a company or in a managerial role, you once made mistakes too. Make sure that you’re approachable enough for people to come to you to figure out how to fix their errors, and make sure that you forgive their mistakes, and that you forget them once you see that they’ve learned from them. Holding a grudge is good for no one at all.
Make Sure You Give Out Plenty Of Praise
When someone does good work, you need to acknowledge it and make sure that you praise them for it. People need to feel as though their time and hard work is noticed and rewarded – it makes them a lot happier and it will ensure that they continue working just as hard. It doesn’t have to be a big deal – just call them into your office, and tell them that you’ve noticed they’ve done excellently lately. If possible, it’s always good to reward particularly good work appropriately, whether it’s with a pizza party for a team that has hit all their targets or a raise or bonus for whoever has done particularly well.
It isn’t always easy to make people feel happy and empowered at work, but these tips should help along the way. Praise people, notice their good work, forget their errors, and give them the help they need to go far, and you’ll all get along excellently.
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