How to be the kind of leader employees tell their friends about

Let’s be honest, we all want to be the kind of leader that inspires people. We want our employees to miss us when we’re gone, to aspire to be more like us, and to seek our advice.

If you have a calling to guide others, then you want to stand out! You want employees that advocate for you, give you the benefit of the doubt, and consistently use discretionary effort on your behalf

So how do you create the kind of employees that will go the extra mile for you? It’s not like you can go ask your employees: “How can I get your loyalty?”

You need to challenge yourself to act in ways that naturally elicit these qualities from your team. You need to build the kind of culture and the kind of relationships within that culture that foster meaningful connections with your employees.

Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash

Understand what they want

Why do your employees show up to work every day? Is it a sense of purpose? It is for the paycheck? Resume building? You need to show that you’re the best person at helping them achieve their individual goals.

Have an employee that wants certain financial results? Work with them on a plan to achieve their financial outcomes through their work. Have an ambitious employee that wants to be promoted quickly? Connect them to other leaders in the organization and give them projects with maximum exposure.

You can’t help your employees get what they want if you don’t know what they want. Ask them explicitly. “Hey, it’s important to me that you’re achieving your goals through your work here, what are your professional priorities in the next couple of months? How can I help?”

By showing that you’re oriented to their goals and showing that you’re capable of contributing, you’ll get more open employees who come to you for advice/help. And in turn, these employees will be better aligned with wanting to stay in your good graces and contribute towards the larger goals of the team.

Go the extra mile

Too many leaders are perceived as doing the bare minimum for their employees, and only when consistently pressed. You need to show that you’re willing to spend discretionary effort on things that specifically benefit your employees.

Get higher bonuses for your team when you can, advocate for better merit increases, have more departmental retreats/lunches/happy-hours. Show that you’re more than the average leader, and as a result that you can get/do/achieve more on their behalf.

These acts of investment in the needs of your department will show that you’re willing to take a proactive role advocating for your team and give a massive boost to your credibility.

And when you inevitably have to give some bad news or have a slip-up, their disappointment in you will be offset by the fact that you’re also the person who gave them wins and benefits they weren’t expecting. The volume of positive goodwill will outweigh the negative.

Take losses on their behalf

We’re all familiar with the “bad boss” stereotype: a self-oriented jerk who will do anything to get what they want. This boss is the sort of person who won’t ever let themselves take the fall and readily throws employees under the bus and accuses them of sabotaging projects as a result of minor infractions.

So, yea, be the opposite of that.

Few people are going to assume that you’re some kind of jerk who is going to point the finger at any living creature with a pulse when things go wrong, but it’s important to explicitly show that you’re never going to put the considerations of yourself over the considerations of your team.

Being conscious of this dynamic is incredibly important because there will be times when you can easily pass the buck to your team when there’s a bad outcome.

Did your team miss a deadline or make a critical error? It’d be easy of you to point out the culpable parties and let them take the fall. Instead, let everyone know that you think it’s ultimately your responsibility to watch for those things.

Your team is going to occasionally make critical mistakes and you need to give them the grace and latitude to grow from those experiences without punishing them.

“Team, we all know we had an unfortunate outcome recently. I want you all to know that I take full responsibility. While I wasn’t directly responsible, it is my responsibility to take ownership when things don’t go our way. We’re going to learn from this, grow from it, and move forward.”

As leaders, we get the teams we deserve. By showing that you’re willing to take responsibility and take political flak on your team’s behalf, you’re going to avoid the blame game.

Leaders that pass blame down to their teams incite a vicious cycle of blame and mistrust as team members seek to shift responsibility to others. By taking ownership, you allow your team to spend their energy truly learning from mistakes and moving forward.

Individually, the above steps won’t change your life, but each small step oriented towards your employees builds up reserves of trust and loyalty that makes the many various leadership functions so much easier. By showing that you’re the kind of person who optimizes for good outcomes for your employees and is willing to shield them from fallout, you become the sort of boss and leader that you yourself want: someone that is just as concerned with the welfare of others (if not more) as for themselves

And remember that this goodwill from your team won’t be won overnight, it’s developed over many months and over many hundreds of little evidence points and charitable acts. You can’t rush or force it. Anyone who’s loyalty can be bought cheaply is likely to turn on you for a similarly measly sum.

Good luck out there.

-Patrick

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