What Your Employees Want

Your employees want to be listened to. They want to be heard. They want to be engaged.

As badly as they want to be listened to, heard, and engaged, they also want a manager who is decisive and quick (but not too quick) to act. Decisive managers get team members to interact, to talk through situations, to hash things out, and to identify weaknesses and develop solutions.

Sometimes the wildly successful manager moves forward with an initiative even if the team members aren't on board with it. And sometimes changes need to be made. Sometimes direction needs to be changed. Employees understand this, but what they don't understand is when a manager is unwilling or unable to make a decision, to set a direction, to be clear, to take a stand.

Employees of great managers understand what the goals and priorities of their managers are and how the manager envisions the team will go about reaching these business goals. These priorities are the foundation of everything these managers do.

Great managers share copious amounts of sincere appreciation for team members who have done a job well. This is verbalized profusely (not implied, not hinted at, and not merely suggested). Employees need and want to be praised for wins big and wins small if they are going to remain engaged. Engaged employees promote company profitability. Disengaged employees create business losses.

Employees of winning managers know how their doing, because their managers let them know. There is no guessing if they're meeting expectations - they already know. They know areas that are expected to be polished or improved. There are no surprises at review time.

Great managers are consistent. Surprises are minimized. They don't have the "initiative of the month" but then not follow through with the new initiative; there is a steadiness to their leadership that provides stability to the entire organization. Poor managers don't have consistency; they lead people around in varying (and sometimes competing) directions that creates an uncomfortable randomness and unpredictability (like a yo-yo on the end of a string being directed this way and that way).

Listen to your employees. Engage them. Be decisive. Be clear. Take a stand. Praise others sincerely. Communicate. Be consistent.

What else do you think employees want?

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn