Ten ways to tell you positively influence employees

Drake Editorial Team

You do a great job of directing, coordinating, and controlling (i.e. managing); but are you equally effective at leading? If you are, then you should have a positive influence on the employees you lead. That is, your employees should be contributing because they want to, not because they feel coerced and not because you browbeat them. They should willingly work with you and others; even during difficult situations and tough times.

Use these 10 measures to gauge your leadership effectiveness. Rate your employees' "willingness" by using a scale of Always, Sometimes, and Never.

1. My employees willingly embrace our organization's vision, mission, and values.

2. My employees willingly accept changes in the team, office, or organization.

3. My employees willingly "go the extra mile" for me, the leader, or for our organization.

4. My employees willingly participate in extracurricular or non-work activities.

5. My employees willingly work together to reduce tension or conflicts.

6. My employees willingly work together to solve problems and improve processes.

7. My employees willingly work together to achieve team, office, or organizational goals.

8. My employees willingly work to improve unsatisfactory performance or continue satisfactory performance.

9. My employees willingly engage in training and development needed to improve or enhance performance.

10. My employees willingly follow rules, practices, and procedures that impact the success of our team, office, or organization.

Focus On What You Can Control
Of course, your ideal score is to have an answer of "Always" for all 10 measures. But that's not always possible for various reasons. Some reasons may have to do with things that are out of your control (i.e. pay, resources, and work hours). Fortunately, you do have control over other things that have a positive influence on employees. These include behaviours you exhibit like being a positive role model, giving positive feedback, and treating employees fairly. Focus on what you "can" do, not on what you "cannot" do.

Leadership Effectiveness Is About Positive Influence
Whether you are a manager or supervisor, you have to lead. That means you have to do more than just "give" orders. You have to interact with employees in a way that motivates them to do their best. Sure, you may not have a positive influence on every employee, but you can on most. And while directing, controlling, and coordinating are important, these management behaviours don't motivate employees to consistently and continuously deliver their Best Performance.

So the next time your employees are not doing what you need them to do; don't look at how you are managing them, look at how you are leading them.

Barbara Brown, PhD shows managers how to improve employee performance by linking performance to results. She publishes handbooks that contain phrases for linking employee performance to workplace results. Handbook topics include Linking Time Management To Results, Linking Customer Service To Results, and others. Dr. Brown also offers E-Courses and E-Consulting as well as onsite training and consulting. Email: Barbara@LinkToResults.net