This is the title of a great blog post written by Alison Green. Now I am not sure that we necessarily need all employees to love us but I bet that her list (which I have paraphrased below) contains some insights and clues into how most of us could become MUCH better managers.
- Don’t shout, disparage or attack people – nor employees, not customers, not bosses.
- Be reasonable. Hold people to high standards, but that don’t demand the impossible.
- Keep your word.
- Make your team feel respected and valued: Act in ways that show you care about their quality of life. And don’t underestimate the impact of regularly making sure great employees know you think they’re great.
- Solicit feedback. Ask for input on everything from how the employee thinks last week’s event went to what you could be doing to make her job easier.
- Stay focused on results. Don’t have rules and policies for their own sake; make sure each is connected to an actual business need, and be willing to bend the rules if it makes sense overall.
- Workout what people need to do their job better, and help them get it.
- Recognise and take the difficult decisions as well as the easy ones
- Be honest about performance problems.
- Don’t assume you know what’s going on.