People management is a skill that not many of today’s leaders have. You don’t need to be adored by everyone on your team, but nurturing mutual respect and fostering the feeling that you care for your employees is more than welcome.
In corporate ecosystems today, it really feels that everything has been already said and done and that you can’t come up with anything creative or unusual that will have a positive effect on your employees. That might be true. However, you need to be aware that there is always that little something that can light the spark of coming together as one within your team. In this article, we give you some creative ways on how to show your employees that you are not all about the business and that you really care.
Casual Day at the Office
We all know that ‘’casual Friday’’ practice taking hold everywhere around. However, not all of those companies really give their employees an opportunity to go 100% casual on that day. For instance, what about their children or their pets? And do they really allow for the employees to come to work wearing their sweatsuits? Instead of making it casual only on paper, make sure to encourage people on your team to make it as casual as they want to. You can even go an extra mile and support them bringing their family members or even pets to work.
Of course, you’ll have to be positive about your company’s offices are pet-friendly if you’re planning to do that. Also, be aware that maybe some people from your company don’t feel comfortable in the presence of big dogs for example.
Make Them Compete For Small Prizes
It’s not easy to find a concept that will keep your team competing while not taking a stance against each other at the same time. Giving away significant prizes to the top performers is not something that you should consider doing. That might affect negatively to people’s morale and may even result in some of them trying to fake their own results for the sake of getting a price.
Instead, choosing prizes that have significant emotional value for individuals on the team is a right way of doing things. For example, all the coin lovers will adore the practice of being presented with custom-made challenge coins, given only to the top-performing monthly employees. On the other hand, if you have sports lovers inside the company, make sure to set them up with a ticket for a large sports event taking place in your city.
Being creative and proactive when it comes to your employers never gets old. It really shows that you value them as individuals and that you actually know what they love to do in their free time. This results in bonding with your co-workers on a higher level.
Get on The Same Level
One ultimately successful way of gaining trust and respect from the people on your team is resonating with them on the level when they don’t perceive you as their superior anymore. This doesn’t mean that they can skip hierarchy and that they stop respecting organization structure within the company. This reflects changing of their attitude towards you as their superior towards taking you as a real friend and companion.
Allowing them to step in your shoes whenever the opportunity arises is a solid way of doing this. Becoming a manager for a day will help them understand all the challenges you are dealing with on an everyday basis so this can be really a win-win situation for everyone.
