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The relationship between leadership and their employees must be give-and-take. Unfortunately, far too many leaders have a problem with receiving feedback from their staff.

If you want workers who are going to be accountable, you need to hold yourself accountable, as well. When you lead by example, you send a powerful message to employees that constructive feedback is beneficial for everyone at every level in the hierarchy. Today’s great leaders listen carefully and evaluate thoughtfully. If you demand that your staff give their all, but you are unwilling to do the same, you will not earn respect or win your employees’ loyalty.

Contemporary leaders embrace and encourage growth – learning, mentoring, expanding their skillset and embracing new opportunities instead of getting stuck in a rut. Even in the absence of promotional opportunities, a modern leader will find ways to challenge workers to ensure they continuously evolve in new and creative ways.

These traits are crucial to success because these days, employees have different values than their predecessors. Inclusivity and empathy as well as transparent and open communication are among the characteristics they desire and seek in leaders. This is the reason why leadership must embrace and demonstrate these new values.

The impact on your employees of how you navigate leadership is significant.

  • 79% of employees will quit if they get inadequate appreciation from their managers. (1)
  • 77% of organizations say there’s a shortage of good leaders. (1)
  • Emotional intelligence enhances leadership effectiveness by 40%. (1)
  • Managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. (2)
  • When companies can increase their number of talented managers and double the rate of engaged employees, they achieve, on average, 147% higher earnings per share than their competition. (2)

Clearly, the benefits of becoming a contemporary leader are compelling, but how do you demonstrate this evolution to your staff? Here, learn about six ways you can show that you are a modern leader.

1. COMMUNICATE OPENLY AND CLEARLY

Although communication has always been a mainstay of good leadership, it looks different in some ways now. As the baby boomers exit and Generation X edges closer to retirement, the generations who will soon dominate the workplace desire open and clear communication.

In fact, ensuring that you communicate in a way that every worker can understand is one of the ways you can promote inclusivity, another value the younger generations hold dear. Leadership and managers should be deliberate and thoughtful with the words they choose when crafting messaging, both written and verbal, directed at employees. You may want to consider creating an official guide that defines the best practices leadership should follow when communicating with their staff.

Active listening is another great approach to improving communication with your staff. Make a concerted effort to understand what they are trying to say and try to respond in a tone that mirrors their own. These behaviors will demonstrate that you respect what they have to say.

2. BE TRANSPARENT WITH BUSINESS MATTERS

A key aspect of open and clear communication is being transparent when addressing business matters. Whether positive or negative, you should default to honesty when discussing developments at the company. Your employees are perceptive, and they will sense disingenuous responses.

This does not mean you need to share every minor change or update with workers. Instead, it means sharing developments that could affect your staff in a significant way. Be prepared to answer any questions they may have, even uncomfortable ones, and to address their concerns in a reassuring yet truthful way. This is a far more productive and beneficial approach than glossing over the truth or refusing to say anything at all.

3. EMPATHIZE COLLABORATION OVER HIERARCHY

Modern leaders recognize that a united staff is a strong one. By working together and giving every employee a seat at the table regardless of their rank on the hierarchy, you take full advantage of all your people’s expertise. In this way, leadership leaves no stone unturned when it comes to coming up with effective solutions to problems and better ways of doing business.

You do not have to throw the structure of your hierarchy out the window. In fact, doing so is not recommended. Rather, welcome ideas and feedback from the lowest ranking employees to the highest ranking leaders with the same level of enthusiasm.

4. BE KIND AND COMPASSIONATE

Do not dismiss kindness and compassion as optional feel-good fluff. Today, employees value these two traits in their leaders, in line with their preference for meaningful work. This is especially true of millennials and Generation Z. When people feel like their employer cares about them and their coworkers, it improves engagement levels. And when engagement levels rise, both employee performance and employee retention tend to improve as a result.

5. PRIORITIZE PEOPLE OVER PROFITS

Your organization must profit and grow to stay alive. That said, you need your workforce to fulfill this goal. Without them, you do not have a business, period. Therefore, prioritizing your employees’ well-being over profits is essential. By doing so, you will motivate and inspire them to work hard on your behalf, not just to earn a living or advance their career.

Get to know the people who work for your company. Find out what moves them and what they care about. What causes do they support? What are their interests? What do they want most from their employer? What defines their career path – opportunities for promotion, continued learning, or becoming a subject matter expert?

Upskilling employees through company-funded training opportunities is another excellent way to put your people first. When you invest in your staff in this way, you acknowledge their value to the organization and show that leadership supports their career ambitions. Plus, their enhanced skillsets and knowledge are advantageous to your business.

6. BANISH REPETITIVE TASKS WITH TECHNOLOGY

Piling your workers’ plates high with menial tasks just to keep them busy is tempting. It is also archaic and a surefire way to stir up resentment – not to mention boredom. Artificial intelligence (AI), which is advancing at a rapid pace, is a great way to banish repetitive tasks from your employees’ to-do lists.

AI excels at automating work that does not require a high level of ingenuity or complex thinking. This technology offers value to organizations in virtually every industry. As with any other solution, there are good products and bad ones. The onus is on leadership to conduct extensive research to narrow down the options and select which ones have the most promise. By choosing wisely, you can free up your staff’s time to focus on high-level tasks that move the needle in a big way.

CONTEMPORARY LEADERS ARE EFFECTIVE ONES

As you can see from the guidance above, modernizing your leadership approach makes you more effective as a leader. Doing so not only results in happier and more engaged employees, but it also offers attractive benefits for your company. The changes and effort it requires are well worth the positive outcomes it can create.

 

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SOURCE(S):

1 https://joingenius.com/statistics/leadership-statistics/

2 https://www.gallup.com/workplace/231593/why-great-managers-rare.aspx

Jim Bozzelli
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