Benevolent Leadership … with your staff
Think back over your work career and the “bad bosses” you encountered. From today’s perspective what did you learn from them? What traits did they share?
Fortunately I only had two “bad bosses” and in hindsight recognize that both of them did not see or get me as an individual. They were focused on their own career path and utilized a “one-size fits all” management style. Both bosses were very direct in their communications and one a micro manager of every detail delegated. These actions made me feel inadequate in completing my work responsibilities and in defense I put up a wall of protection from the verbal stings and negative feedback.
Working for a “bad boss” was very hard on me physically and emotionally. Rather than thriving in my job I focused on survival and looking for a way out. In both situations my take-away was to never treat people that worked for me that way and to become my own boss one day.
Managing staff can be challenging, but also very rewarding. In the pet care industry we have a great model to emulate in becoming great leaders…benevolent dog leaders hip. One of my soapbox issues is business owners that don’t emulate the same benevolent leadership with staff that they require with the dogs. People deserve the same compassion and the same tools do work.
Let’s translate the benevolent dog leadership model into a staff leadership model:
Qualities – the four key items from Off-Leash Dog Play all apply to good staff leadership:
- posture (carry yourself as a leader),
- attitude (calm & confident),
- consistent in enforcing limits or boundaries (policies & procedures), and
- using proactive intervention to prevent undesired
Tools
- controlling resources converts to providing tools and education for staff to succeed in their roles,
- utilizing obedience cues converts to documented policies & procedures, and
- setting each staff member up for success by knowing them as
Events – Key events that require strong leadership for your staff includes:
- when they are new and learning your organization,
- each situation where changes are made to policies and procedures,
- conflict resolution, and
- peak periods when you need
With staff members we most often fall short in our leadership by not getting to know each person as an individual.
This is natural as you want to maintain a “business” relationship, but keeping too much distance backfires. We are all humans first and need to feel seen, heard and understood to be happy and perform our best. Full-time employees spend a majority of their time each week at your business. Building an effective team requires that each member feel like their basic human needs of belonging to the group are being met.
Start the relationship by understanding the reason each staff member has made the choice to work for you. Knowing their primary motivation for the job, personal goals and future desires is important to creating a bond and setting them up for success. Think about who you always want to please and put forth your best efforts for? It’s your family and friends; people you a re close to, like and respect. Dogs respond positively to the people that engage and build a bond with them and you’ll find the same is true with your staff.
For feedback on job performance to be effective you must first have a bond established with the staff member. Creating a bond requires that you put forth effort to know and understand each individual. Staff members need to feel like your feedback is presented to help them be successful in THEIR goals, not just for your business success.
Poor performance is a red flag of a disconnect and someone that is in survival mode. In these situations benevolent leaders first look in the mirror to confirm they have fulfilled their responsibilities. Next they serve as a compassionate coach for their team; helping them achieve their goals which in turn helps the business to succeed.
