Management Success and Respecting Employees

You are stuck in a rut. You go to work, badge in or amble to your desk, half heartedly check your mailbox, inbox, voicemail, email, webmail, post it notes stuck on your door, or any variation of those things. Say "hi, how are you doing" to Bill in the next office, not because you care how he is doing, but because it is your routine. Everything is routine. You've been in management for years and nothing surprises you anymore. Employees can cry at your door or give you the finger and you don't care either way. Your own boss mandates endless nuisances upon you, which you in turn pass on to your employees telling them that it is not you that requests these pointless new tasks, but rather these are being demanded by the plant manager. Sound familiar? You feel like you are not empowered to make any decisions, you feel that your employees do not care or respect what you say. Your boss walks all over you and your employees walk all over you too. It's time for a change!

Or maybe you go the other way. You get to work all charged up ready to thump your chest and let your employees know who is the boss. You have no problem criticizing or "fixing" each thing every one of you employees does each day. You feel important and smart by passing out your vast amounts of advice on how your employees could be doing their jobs better. Oh, and one other thing...you hope for those mundane new tasks from your boss so that you can "jump all over it" and prove to him you are a "go getter" and agree with him or her absolutely 100% with every new mind numbing task they decree. You are the habitual "butt kisser" of the management team. Everyone knows it, even you, but you still do it. You feel almost like a used piece of toilet paper every time you glue your lips to the boss's butt only to watch him take credit for what you have done for him. Unfortunately, you do the same to your employees. After every bit of good "advice" you give them, when they adopt your ideas, you are the first person to claim credit for it to your superiors. It's time for a change for you also!!

While managing people can be very challenging and WILL bring out the best and worst in each of us, it can also be very very rewarding. However, managing people must be approached with an open and positive, reassuring but firm, and respectful attitude. Respect goes two ways. Respect for your employees, and respect for yourself. If you cannot learn both of these forms of respect, you will always struggle to reach your potential as a leader.

So what is the point? I mean....really? Bottom line is profits. We work in management so that we can cultivate the finest, most efficient workforce in order to obtain maximum profits. It sounds hard and cold, but in reality we need employees to perform and make money for our companies. It's not so hard and cold when we realize that we are also providing our workers with life sustaining income. So how can we create an atmosphere in which our employees perform as efficiently as possible in order for us to profit at an acceptable level? Employees want to be respected, and boss's also want to be respected. It is a fact of life that human's want respect. It's no different at work. Respected workers in a respectful workplace perform. Performance makes profits. So how do we get our of our daily rut and start maximizing our companies profit potential with the department of employees that we manage? It all starts with....not respect....but getting to know yourself!

Regarding your attitude, are you happy where you are today? This of course is a trick question without a standard answer but knowing how to answer it is crucial. The reason is this: Believing that you are happy can actually increase your happiness and contentment, and give you the confidence and positive attitude for anything that you wish to achieve. Don't just wish you were happy with your job, but believe it and know it.

Here is one that might touch a nerve, but are you appealing to the opposite sex? (or same sex, depending on your approach) It may feel impossible to do, but make yourself appealing. Change your hair style or clothes. Upgrade your vehicle. Walk tall and confidently, and do not show fear. Read some self help books on this subject and follow through on it. The opposite sex does not respond to looks at WORK as much as they respond to confidence and appeal. You can be disgustingly ugly, but if you carry yourself with the confidence of a model, others will begin to see you that way. Don't act like how you look (or how you think you look). Act confident and attractive. This will build your confidence and will help you become a positive role model for your employees. One example is with my boss. If anyone would meet him outside of work, they would not even look twice. However, at work, I have been approached by some of my employees saying "Is your boss the tall handsome man that we see leaving each day?" There have been times when I have almost laughed when I heard that, because my boss is neither tall nor handsome, but what I've realized is that he carries himself as if he were. He carries himself with confidence. Employees adopted his view of himself as their view of him also. That is key! Carry yourself in a way in which you expect others to view you, and it will happen.

The success of your department, corporate wing, branch office, or whatever you are in charge of all depends on your positive attitude. Always stay polite and friendly with your equals and with subordinates. Being polite does not mean you are being walked on, so just understand that. Follow all of your companies rules and guidelines, but do it with a smile. Don't micromanage your employees. They do their job every day and are far better at it than you will ever be, so trying to explain to a warehouse forktruck driver how they can do their job better when you have never even been on a forktruck in your life is very counter productive. UNDERSTAND----Your employees are professionals at what they do. Your are not. You are a professional at what YOU do. You would like it very little if an employee approached you when you were trying to do some work and they had 600 questions for you about this or that. Employees feel the same way towards us if they are busy working and we try to "butt" in with our advice. Respect employees enough to let them do their assigned tasks. And they will repay it back with respect and also better quality.

I request that you visit rx8driver.com. rx8driver.com has a series of motivational eBooks for sale that will greatly help you in your pursuit of becoming a more positive and inspiring manager in your company. You can personally ask any of the 215 employees who report directly to me if they feel that I give them the support, respect, and positive approach needed to help them perform at their maximum potential, and I am very sure that at least 80% of them will say that I do. I won't lie to you and say that all of them will, because we all know, as managers, that if anyone claims to make 100% of their employees fully happy and motivated at all times, that we are full of it. I do work with one such individual, and he is certainly "full of it" if you know what I mean. We are trying do work in the real world here, and one of the first things all new managers learn is that you can't make all of the people happy all of the time (nor should you attempt to). I plan to cover that very issue in my next article. Anyway, head over to rx8driver.com and check it out.