Being a leader isn’t as black and white as it once was—especially if you value your employees and customers. There are a lot of pressures faced by managers – we get it.

We want to help.

Here are five signs that your business management philosophy might need a makeover.

1. You’re Not Keeping Your Promises To Your Customers

No one likes a broken promise—especially your customers and employees. Breaking promises can cause a breakdown in trust. Without trust, your business can run into a lot of problems.

Nick Sarillo, owner of Nick’s Pizza & Pub, found they weren’t able to live up to their pizza in 15 minutes promise after launching a new promotion. Sarillo realized his system needed to be redone and they fixed it quickly. The customers’ anger dissipated and trust was restored.

If you have a promise or guarantee that isn’t being honored, that could spell disaster for your customer base. Customers use your business, which takes a certain amount of trust. Employees keep that business running. Don’t throw their trust away. If something isn’t working in your business, you need to nip it in the bud.

2. If It’s Do As You Say And Not As You Do

Yes, we understand that you you think you’re food chain. You tell employees what to do and they do it. However, that’s not a good tactic. Leaders need to be servant leaders.

What is a servant leader? Well, you put your employees before yourself. It’s in every business’s best interest to have a workplace filled with happy employees. Stop telling and start asking.

You shouldn’t preside over your workers without being mindful of their issues and questions. Helping them, within reason, and listening to them can make such a big difference in how they see and respect you as a leader.

Treat them like customers—their happiness and satisfaction will help your business succeed.

3. Your Employees Feel Undervalued

It’s important that your employees feel valued because they are the frontline. Make employees feel appreciated, and they will work harder and be more loyal. Simple enough, right?

Your ways of showing value or appreciation might not be resonating well with your employees. When they do a good job or get employee of the month, do you meet with them in-person to tell them job well done? Or do you send out a pre-written email and give them a gift card?

Sure, promotions and bonuses are coveted methods of showing appreciation for hard workers. However, you might be forgetting how much workers value kind words delivered face-to-face.

Find out what actions you could take to make your employees would feel more valuable.

4. Work Is No Fun

Work is important and so are your employees. Parties and games are not frivolous, but ways to increase employee engagement. A party is a great way to foster the relationships that help businesses to function.

Your employees spend a great deal of time at work with their peers, a party is a great way for them to bond or celebrate a project victory. Having a party with games is also a great equalizer between workers and management. Keep in mind, not all parties have to be expensive or elaborate. Grilling outside or playing games in the conference room can still make for a fun time.

Cutting back on company parties is a fast way to keep morale from rising or send it spiralling downward. You should, instead, show your workers that you believe in happy employees and want to make work fun for everyone.

5. You Aren’t Self-Reflective

If you don’t know where you want to go with your business, then how will you know how to get there? You need to ask yourself what kind of business you want to build before you can start building at all.

Talk to your employees about your mission statement. Figure out where you want the business to go and how everyone working there feels about it. You need to know what is important to you and everyone else. This will help you establish your values as a company.

Your business management philosophy may seem sound to you, but that doesn’t mean it’s working for your employees. Reevaluate your current business management philosophy; it may just need a makeover.

What’s the most important principle you follow when managing your business? Leave a comment and let us know!

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