If the past two years have proved anything, it’s that a supportive workplace is vital to maintaining a dynamic relationship with employees. The planet is in multiple crises, and that’s a destabilizing factor at home and the workplace. When managers show their support and company policy reflects concern and care for employees, it gives everyone a sense of well-being. Managers can be the calm in the storm, and when they are, it can make them highly desirable members within organizations.
Workplace Culture and Morale
Resiliency has suffered during the pandemic, and many of us have lost loved ones. So many people are grieving personal losses, and that affects performance at work. With the reality of losing loved ones in the forefront of our nation’s consciousness, only 44% of employees feel like they’re resilient enough to bounce back effectively after a loss.
Empathy from managers is needed now more than ever before in living memory, even at a time when they themselves are facing burnout. When the four emotional needs of employees – trust, compassion, stability, and hope – are filled by leaders, employees are much more likely to be resilient and perform at a higher rate. In fact, 59% of employees surveyed who agree that their organization cares about their well-being also believe they can bounce back from hardship. However, only 25% of employees feel that their organization cares about them. Organizations’ workplace and morale need serious work and urgent attention.
Delegation of Tasks
As a manager, you have a job to do and goals to meet. Being goal-oriented is fantastic, but you can’t get to the finish line alone. Working with others to reach a goal is called collaboration, and it’s one of the biggest parts of your job as a manager. It’s not enough to just delegate tasks. You must delegate in a way that motivates employees to reach a goal.
Motivating employees is a lot easier if they understand the objective and feel like it’s a goal worthy of reaching. It should be fulfilling to them and important. Employees’ performance skyrockets when their work is meaningful to them, so make sure they understand the big picture of where the company is going with this project and why their work is important to meeting that goal.
Enhance Employability
Soft skills are the key differentiator between candidates with equal hard skills when applying for a job. In fact, in LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report, 92% of recruiters reported that soft skills are equal or greater in importance than hard skills like education and experience. An astounding 89% of these recruiters reported that when a newly hired employee doesn’t work out, it’s because they lack important soft skills. The most critical soft skills that make a candidate more employable are:
- Written and verbal communication
- A positive attitude
- Strong work ethic
- Collaborative teamwork skills
- Leadership skills
- Precise time management
- Smart decision making and foresight
- Compassionate conflict resolution
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Networking skills
- Empathy and compassion
- Organizational skills
Competency
Almost nothing builds trust in a manager or employees like confidence and competency. Possessing hard skills and the knowledge to get the job done is vitally important, but so are soft skills like condensing information and succinctly explaining how to do a job without sounding overly demanding. Competency shows your leadership potential.
When you know your job well and get it done on time, help others around you when they need it, don’t require much supervision, and are compassionate and encouraging of your fellow teammates, it proves your competency and leadership potential. Everyone within an organization from the entry-level employees to the CEOs and upper managers loves to see and be in the presence of competency. When you don’t need a lot of extra resources to do your work well, it saves time, energy, and money. When your coworkers like to work with you because you treat them well, it’s a huge advantage for an organization. That’s the type of behavior that leads to upward mobility.
Now and in the future, soft skills are critical to your employability. Those who can communicate well and lend to the workplace’s positive culture and morale are a joy to work with and are highly in demand. If you can delegate tasks and show competency while being compassionate to your team, you’ll keep rising in the ranks of your organization now and far into the future.
Do you need help in building your managers soft skills? Call Core Management Training, we can help. Contact us at kwillis@coremanagementtraining.com or call at 484.272.5138.
