Employee satisfaction and high productivity go hand in hand. When your staff are happy at work, they’re more likely to bring their A-game every day.
However, keeping morale high is easier said than done. After all, employees have different values, preferences, and work ethics. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and you will likely have to tweak yours often.
Avoiding certain phrases that can mark you as an ineffective and insecure leader certainly helps. Here are 11 of them:
“Your colleague is doing better.”
Unfavorable (and unwarranted) comparisons are a sure confidence-killer. It doesn’t matter if you meant well either. When trying to motivate your employees, refer to their past performance rather than another person as a benchmark.
“I want solutions, not problems.”
Don’t shoot the messenger, so to speak. Your employees like coming to you with problems as much as you like hearing about them. Instead of needling them for something beyond their control, work with them to come up with a solution.
“I don’t have any feedback.”
Feedback is necessary for an employee’s growth. If you can’t think of any, try to pay more attention to your team and how they perform. Still got nothing? Ask your team to update you on their progress so you can generate some insights later on.
“Just do it. You don’t need to know why.”
Your employees have the right to know why they need to accomplish certain tasks. Best of all, understanding the purpose behind a task can help them come up with better ways to achieve such objectives. Your job as a leader is to help them understand what needs to be done and more importantly, why their work matters.
“I’ll do it myself.”
If you keep saying this, you’ll find yourself having to do exactly that before long. No matter how great you are, building a business requires a team effort. You need talented staff behind (and beside) you. Yes, it can be challenging to train them to do things according to your standards, but it’s always worth it in the end.
“I’m the boss.”
Your employees know that already. Such arrogance and posturing might give you their compliance, but rarely ever their loyalty.
Employees naturally gravitate towards someone with good leadership traits so demonstrate these rather than mouth off.
“Why did you do it like that?”
Pointing fingers won’t get you anywhere, especially if things are already messed up. Instead, try to do a post-mortem on what happened. You can even involve your employees by asking them for ideas on how to prevent such things from happening next time.
“Good job.”
This sounds counter-intuitive, but the point here is to be specific regarding what you appreciate about your employee’s performance. Sincere, personalized recognition beats generic, half-hearted praise any day.
“That’s your problem.”
Teams deal with problems collectively. A good leader never leaves their team to fend for themselves. If they encounter issues and run to you for help, the last thing you should do is run in the opposite direction.
“I don’t have time for this.”
The best leaders always make time for important conversations. If you’re really busy and can’t attend to things immediately, be gracious about it. Or better yet, schedule the conversation for a later time so your employees won’t feel brushed off.
“Are you questioning my authority?”
The best leaders welcome healthy debates and dialogues. Always be open to suggestions and inquiries. You never know which one/s might lead you to the best strategies.
Remote Staff has been helping AU entrepreneurs like you find and hire the best remote workers from the Philippines for the last 14 years and counting. On top of that, we also assist with onboarding so you can focus on running your business (and avoiding these negative phrases). *wink* *wink*
Call us today or schedule a call back so we can get started.
Serena has been working remotely and writing content for the better part of the last decade. To date, she's written for Pepper.ph and Mabuhay Magazine, among others, and has churned out more than a thousand articles on everything from The Basics of Stock Market Investing to How to Make Milk Tea-Flavored Taho at home.
