15 Ways to Leverage the #1 Contributor to Job Satisfaction for Leadership Success
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports, for two years running, that respectful treatment of all employees at all levels is the #1 contributor to job satisfaction. Compensation, trust, and relationships matter, but respect tops the list.*
Disrespect:
You can’t look down on others and lead effectively at the same time.
Nearly 80% of people who feel disrespected are less committed. About half intentionally give less effort.**
Expressions of disrespect include:
- Threats.
- Unearned advantages.
- Brown-nosing higher ups.
- Secrets.
- Inequities.
- Favoritism.
- Attention to weaknesses and neglect of strengths.
Disrespect destroys satisfaction.
Things disrespectful leaders say:
- It’s about time.
- You’ve got to be kidding.
- What were you thinking?
- You never get this right.
- You always….
Respect:
Worry more about showing respect and less about receiving it.
Show respect if you expect engagement, performance, and commitment. Speak and act respectfully when you give negative feedback, correct issues, or point out deficiencies.
15 ways to increase leadership effectiveness with respect:
- Never casually dismiss an idea or suggestion.
- Confront jerks and jackholes in the office.
- Believe in an employee’s potential. Invisible beliefs are more visible than you might imagine.
- Don’t interrupt.
- Say ‘yes’ as much as possible.
- Tell the truth. If it’s a matter of confidentiality, say you can’t talk about it.
- Apologize when you screw up.
- Catch people showing respect and pat them on the back.
- Accept people where they are, even as you raise the bar.
- Acknowledge and value effort.
- Express gratitude.
- Be available and accessible.
- Monitor and modulate your tone of voice.
- Listen calmly. Impatience is disrespect. Impatient leaders are saying they’re more important than others.
- Eliminate distractions when someone enters your office.
What types of disrespectful behavior have you observed?
Which items on the list of 15 make you feel respected? Additions?
*Full SHRM report
**Reported in HBR
Other examples of disrespectful behaviour include:
1. Being late to a meeting that you called.
Everyone’s time is important, so show up on time.
2. Showing up unprepared to a meeting that you called.
It is not the role of your staff to determine what YOU want to discuss.
3. Not placing your cell phone on silent so the entire office has to hear it ring out 10x while you are in a meeting 2 floors down
4. Hosting conference calls on speaker phone with your door open for all to hear and be sufficiently distracted.
5. Holding your staff to a policy that for some reason does not apply to you. i.e. the office is fragrance-free, but the manager smells like a lethal combo of Axe body spray and Gain laundry detergent.
Thanks K. Great stuff!! My favorite = showing up late for meetings you called.
Totally on-target.
Great article and so true regarding respect at work. It also strikes me that all of these tips could be applied to parenting as well. I have small children, but one thing I’m learning is that a lot of lessons on leadership can also be translated into parenting, which makes sense I suppose since that is the ultimate leadership position. Thought I’d share in case this resonates with anyone else. Thanks for your blog – I recommend it to my employees and colleagues all the time!
Thanks for your suggestion and for sharing Leadership Freak with others. Much appreciated.
I wish I would have applied leadership principles to my parenting strategies. It would have helped a lot. I have a secret dream of hosting a leadership conference for parents. 🙂
Do it Dan! It’s difficult to find training on how to be an awesome parent, bringing out the best in your kids.
Leadership coaching for parents is an amazing idea! The family is the most basic structure out there with the greatest number of leaders and the most potential for harm or good.
From your list: Be available and accessible. My current supervisor is so busy that he/she is frequently unavailable when I (or my colleagues) would like to discuss projects, and he/she doesn’t even show up for or cancel our scheduled status update meetings.
Additions: (1) Ease up on the push-back, (when I tell you what the DOT/OSHA/EPA/____ [fill in the blank] requirement is, don’t say “that’s stupid, why do we have to do that” and put me in a defensive position)
(2) have a clue what your people do, the current supervisor actually tried to get a clue as to what each of us was doing initially, it was hard because of all the push-back. The he/she tried to free people up so that they could provide more value to the organization (and do something they liked as well) and it was hard to watch sub-par jobs being done by unsupervised, inexperience people.
(3) learn the “language” that your experienced people speak. – As an example, several weeks ago my supervisor (of 3 years) and I were “arguing” about a project that he/she wanted me to do. After 10 minutes of “arguing,” I recognized that I already had what he/she wanted. We were speaking two different languages after three years.
I know that I play a part in the disrespect, and I’m struggling to even be respectful to the position because of the lack of experience/knowledge of person holding that position. It’s frustrating. (BTW, the previous supervisor was awesome, very respectful and he/she had the same lack of experience and knowledge as the current supervisor and, in a very short time, learned the language and used an appropriate level of push-back to facilitate their learning.)
Thanks AK. Powerful contribution. You remind me that leaders/managers matter more than they might think. Your additions are a big help in seeing behaviors to avoid. I think part of showing respect is not being disrespectful. You have to do the positive of course.
Cheers
I would add not showing up for a meeting you called and not letting your staff know ahead of time so staff can plan to effectively use that time for another meeting and/or task.
Thanks Karen. Don’t you hate it when people waste your time. Glad you jumped in.
I need to work on #12 and #16. I’m a generally impatient person and have a hard time not urging people to get to the point quickly.
Great list — I would add: Stay focused on the outcome you want and let employees accomplish tasks in their own way.