Author: Katy Goshtasbi

I remember the days when I was in my last legal job in-house at a large company. It was all so painful. My boss used to like to lead through intimidation and fear. And yes, my boss did this to everyone- even me, a person who had been practicing law at that point for almost a decade. Talk about not making employees feel valued.

I recall when she first hired me. She closed the door to her office and pointed out that I was not allowed to work from home. Ever. I remember thinking to myself, “I live across the street from the office. Why would I want to work from home?” Later, I found out that she liked to “work” from home regularly, which meant she was getting manicures and massages. No wonder she assumed the worst of me.

This way of leading didn’t stop with me. She treated everyone who reported to me (and thus, reported to her) the same way, too. We were a bunch of unhappy employees. As I look back upon my experiences at that job, I see all the things that could have been done differently, but wasn’t. Here are just three things to do to make employees feel valued. When we feel valued as employees, then we will naturally want to work harder for you.

1. We are human! Treat us that way – If ever there was an easy way to make employees feel valued, it’s to treat all of us like humans. Seems simple enough, right? Simple is not always easy. I have so many C-level clients who have tons of trouble stopping and seeing their employees as humans. Why? We are all busy and on the run. Plus, we don’t make allowances for people to learn and grow and err- which is all human. I promise you, once you stop and make time to see everyone as human, the world will change, as will your employee productivity.

2. Slow down – No one knows better than me what a fast pace we have to keep in corporate America these days. I also see this pace fail everyday to advance the corporate mission. Even if you slow down a tenth of your current pace, I guarantee a better version of yourself will materialize. In this way, you can be seen by your employees as a well-put together leader who values them enough to see them.

3. Build in appreciation time – when no one knows they are appreciated and doing work well, how can they be better at their job? I recommend to all my clients that they build in a regular and structured form of appreciation time for their employees. This is the time and place where employees are encouraged to thank one another for anything and everything- big or small. It allows other employees to be seen and heard. Plus, the act of showing gratitude raises everyone’s’ mood and drive to keep doing well.

So stop and consider:

– How often do you stop and see your staff as humans and support them to succeed, while acknowledging with kindness their weaknesses?

– What kind of pace are you keeping at work? Is it serving you well? How do you know?

– What ways do you have to appreciate your staff and allow them to appreciate each other?

Often times, the simplest actions are the hardest. So while my tips above may seem easy, finding the right way of implementing the tips can be hard. I’m always here to support you.

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I remember when I was a practicing lawyer in corporate America. It seems we were always talking about increasing profits. And we were never talking about the employees that were responsible for increasing those very same profits. Increasing employee productivity rarely crossed our minds, as a solution.

Why?

Fast forward 15 years and a second career and now I know the answer very clearly because I’ve heard many clients say so. No one wants to deal with the touchy feel stuff associated with making employees better and more productive. It’s much easier to keep focusing on left-brained linear, non-mushy metrics such as strategic plans and operating issues. The only way to increase profits regularly and grow your corporate brand is to focus and increase employee productivity. End of story.

Here are three simple ways to do so:

Natural Strengths – spend time developing each employee’s natural strengths and talents. This will take time and money and a good consultant. The results will pay for themselves 100-fold. I promise. When you have employees understand what they are good at doing and apply it to their roles in your organization, morale goes up and so must productivity.

Communications – oftentimes within organizations the communications is less than stellar. I find that everyone comes from a very passive stance. When people don’t communicate well, anger and hostility fester and grow and impact profits because employee morale drops. You must stop and objectively assess: a) how is your communication working out for your company? b) what can you fix? c) who do you hire to do so? This is definitely not something that can get fixed by your HR department. You need experts.

Rewards, Rewards, Rewards – make sure there is a group incentive program for people doing good- period. I’m not talking about bonuses, per se. I’m talking about putting in place measures for employees to be able to praise one another in the open– in groups. This allows for employees to connect with one another and support one another. Morale goes up, productivity goes up, profits go up. I promise.

All of this is simple, and not easy necessarily. I understand and I’m your biggest fan. Choose to see a new perspective by choosing to see things differently. I promise you can’t fail.

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Need more support or ideas? Call or email. I’m happy to support you.

When business is bad, business is bad. However, when business is good then it seems we, as business owners and those in leadership, have a possible whole new set of issues with which to deal. When it rains, it pours. I’m even guilty of this, just like the rest of us.
 

What often happens?

Here’s how I see it. We all spend so much time and effort in generating business and laying the foundation of growth. As a result though, what happens is that we don’t stay in balance with the rest of the big growth picture.
 
See if any of this has happened to you or others on your team. You grow, but:

1. You don’t have enough, or the right, staff to service this new demand.

2. Everyone is exhausted and burning the candle on both ends because you haven’t allocated resources and strengths well amongst your staff.

3. Your focus becomes so much on the current cause of growth (ie, the new clients) that you don’t go out there and keep the pipeline full. As a result, business has the potential of grinding to a halt if the current clients go away.

So what’s the solution?

Easy. The first thing to do is to look at “balance” as a sort of “harmony”. Life ebbs and flows. If you don’t ebb and flow, things get complicated and painful at some point. Stay flexible, roll with it and see growth as just a phase. This means also stopping to plan out the future growth strategy FOR THE LONG TERM, like at least 5 years. Long term vision building is a gift and a must. If you don’t do this, you can’t ebb and flow. Most folks can’t do this alone, so hire a consultant because we are neutral and can see the forest from the trees. It’s our job to do so and help you implement it all.
 
This same rule applies to your staff and colleagues. You must step back and always be evaluating growth and bandwidth from their perspective. This means also communicating well with everyone in your organization- even if that communication is merely to say, “what are we doing here?”.
 
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