Avoid These Mistakes and Keep Your Teams Inspired

This concept can be difficult for some leaders to practice, particularly when the pressure to perform and deliver results is high. Avoid the following leadership pitfalls to achieve greater employee motivation, satisfaction, and sustainable results.

 

Lack of Empathy

Empathy in leadership is imperative in fostering the individual and collective resilience needed to navigate these uncertain times.

As a leader, you will always play a role in how your employees feel. According to a study by brain-imaging, when employees recalled a leader that had been unkind, they showed increased activation in areas of the brain associated with avoidance, and the opposite was true when they thought of an empathic leader.

How can you expect people to go the extra mile for the business and your customers if they do not feel valued, appreciated, and understood?
Regardless of industry or size, people are the pillars of organisations. However, this fact gets overlooked far, too often.

Employees must never only be a means of getting the job done, attracting more customers, and thus higher revenue.

 

Not Investing in Building Relationships

Take the time to know your employees. The people they are outside the workplace, what motivates them, their goals, aspirations, and how working for you can bring them closer to achieving those goals?

When you take time to connect authentically, build meaningful relationships, all with a deep sense of purpose, it gets easier to rally people around a common goal, and to achieve higher levels of collaboration.

 

As Richard Bronson said, "Take care of your employees, and they will take care of your business."

 

The pandemic ushered a 24-7 world driven by technology and globalization. There has been an increased demand for talent and customer services across borders. Time zones beyond the usual 9-5 have caused the emergence of new working hours, alternative shift patterns, and changing needs of the workforce.

To keep up, leaders must be agile and swiftly adapt to empowering people to work where, when, and how they work best for maximum productivity.

Flexibility has proven to be a vital asset when it comes to successfully navigating these VUCA times.

 

Overlooking Small Wins

It is easy to overlook small wins when you are focused on surviving and navigating unchartered waters. Leaders today are required to be intentional about recognizing milestones, however small.

Teams need and deserve encouragement to reduce anxiety, maintain a positive outlook and offer safe learning opportunities.

People want to feel seen, valued, and engaged. Engaging with the people you serve enables you to understand the levers for improving loyalty, commitment, and the retention your organisation deserves.

When the workforce thrives, the organisation wins.