The Importance of Leadership in Employee Motivation
Employees work harder and feel happier when they have strong leaders. They also stay in their workplaces longer.
Are you looking for ways to motivate your employees? Are you interested in increasing your employee satisfaction or retention rates?
Are you appropriately conveying the importance of leadership in the workplace?
61% of employees report that managers have a direct impact on their job satisfaction. This ranks even higher than salary! Thus, the importance of effective leadership should never be overlooked.
Let’s dig into the reasons why.
Importance of Leadership in the Workplace
A Strong Leader Exhibits Competence
Leadership competence is the single most important trait in workplace satisfaction.
In a nutshell, employees want to know and believe that their supervisor has enough knowledge in the field that they could successfully “take over” their role if necessary.
This shows how important it is for employees to feel understood and validated in their individual positions. They want to know their leader “gets” the industry, including the obstacles and challenges that come with it.
A Strong Leader Sets Clear Intentions (And Trusts the Employees to Follow Them!)
Effective leaders are decisive and straightforward. They know how to convey what they want, and they do it in a way that is collaborative and cohesive.
Job responsibilities and expectations are clear. They give employees the benefit of the doubt to follow them (i.e: no micromanaging).
This conveys a dual sense of value and trust for the company while maintaining the importance of leadership.
A Strong Leader Gives Feedback
Positive or negative, employees want to know how they are doing. Nothing feels more jarring than receiving surprising feedback during the annual performance review.
Effective leaders can acknowledge individual strengths and weaknesses and routinely provide detailed feedback on such assignments.
A Strong Leader Includes The Entire Team
Nobody likes it when the supervisor plays favorites. This makes for a competitive or cliquish work environment. It also reduces employee satisfaction and motivation.
When bosses use the importance of leadership to emulate a sense of collaboration and cohesiveness, employees feel more valued for their differing personalities and diverse areas of expertise.
A Strong Leader Recognizes & Appreciates Employees
Companies that score high in employee-recognition enjoy 31% lower turnover rates. This appreciation and praise doesn’t need to be elaborate or even expensive.
A few effective ways to convey appreciation include:
- Praising the employee’s specific behaviors or tasks. This can be done in the presence of others or through a company-wide recognition email
- Offering small and random monetary incentives or gift cards
- Catered breakfast or lunch for the employees
- Offering an extra afternoon or day off
- Simply writing a handwritten note expressing your gratitude
- Annual appreciation dinner and/or event
To conclude, an effective supervisor maintains a sense of passion and motivation within the workplace. It is his or her job to appropriately convey this importance of leadership in a healthy and safe manner.
What do you admire in your current supervisor? Is he/she a leader you admire? Better yet, are YOU the kind of leader you admire?