Good Leadership Starts with Listening to Your Staff!

Good Leadership Starts with Listening to Your Staff!

I’m sure everyone at some point in their career have had a boss that never listens and makes unilateral decisions without anyone’s input. This top down management style rarely works as it’s very hard to build team and create momentum. It often produces barriers, which can be very destructive and creates dissension and poison within the workplace.

Everybody is worthy of their own opinion, and good quality leaders take time to listen to their staff. Employees just want the chance to be heard and by taking the time to truly listen to your staff you will be building your business. By listening, you will get valuable feedback that can change the way you do business. As a senior leader for over three decades, I’m proof that most of our innovative and operational ideas came from listening to staff. Over 95% of ideas in the businesses I managed came from employees, as they became the ears and eyes of the operations. In many instances, staff have extremely valuable experience and expertise that can offer you transformational solutions for your business.

It's also important to have an open door policy and encourage your staff to come to you with creative solutions. By instilling a culture of solutions in the workplace - staff will feel an instant sense of belonging, worthiness and sense of ownership. Bottom line is their opinion is extremely valuable to your organization and their input could be that solution you are looking for. I found some of the best ideas came from junior and lower-level postions that I managed . Staff are the backbone of your business and the very best leaders look to staff for solutions.

Great managers listen, and by building a culture of open communication and collaboration you will be on the road to building a great team! There's nothing more deflating than having a micromanager that knows it all and never listens to other opinions. Don't go alone - everybody has an opinion and it counts!