Care to lead: Ways great leaders genuinely care about their teams

There’s a saying, “perception is reality,” that sums a phenomenon that humans experience. It means that regardless of the truth, people tend to create their own realities in their brains. It can be a tricky battle to fight perceptions in the workplace, especially given what we’ve been navigating the past two years. Stress and worry are still at an all-time high and your staff may be feeling uneasy about their future. It’s why leading with care is critical during changing times.

In a business climate plagued by turnover, some of the top reasons people choose to stay with a company centers around how they are treated in the workplace. When you genuinely care about your employees, they notice. It keeps them motivated to show up and keeps morale high. 

Here are a few ways great leaders show their teams they care, which strengthens their wellbeing and builds their resilience.

Your team has depth. They have hobbies outside of work and places they spend their days. Talk to them to get to know what is meaningful to them outside of the office. Pay attention when they’re talking about their interests, and work to remember the details. It goes a long way in showing you care about your staff. You may even want to consider kicking off meetings with ice breakers or a lightning round of questions to share what they did over the weekend. It goes a long way in helping them feel seen.

Keep your employees highly engaged by talking to them about their role in your business. They need to feel like they’re more than just a cog in the machine. Help them understand exactly how important their role is within the inner workings of your company. Then, turn the focus on them and ask what they need to do their jobs better. Get into the nitty gritty of their every-day work. Ask specific details about how they work best and help them achieve those things. Let them drive the conversation. You may just learn things that will change the dynamic of your business.

You would be surprised how often a simple, “What do you think about that?” can invite honest feedback and new ideas from your team. Team members can sometimes feel providing an opinion or idea opens them up to criticism and leaves them vulnerable. Show that you genuinely want to hear what they have to say by asking questions directly to them. When they share those ideas and opinions, value what they have to say. If you need time to process their recommendations, take that time. But always come back to show that you heard them. Be specific about what they said to you, so they know they were heard.

Long term success is much easier when you’ve been open and honest with your team. They’ll feel safer in the office if they know they can have difficult conversations that will improve the business. There are many ways you can be more transparent in business. Share your own mistakes so they can see you’re human, too. Talk about the results you’re seeing in the market and talk about the players who helped you find success. Communicate clearly and invite questions. The more they’re able to see your willingness to talk to them, the happier they’ll be. Their happiness should be of concern to you.

No employee wants to be micromanaged. When you take a hands-off approach and allow your team to get the job done in the way that makes sense to them, the work is much more satisfying. Encourage your team to come to you with new ideas. The best managers and leaders are willing to engage with their team members for feedback and willing to take their ideas into consideration.

Praise is a great way to boost self-confidence and self-esteem, not just for the receiver, but the giver, too. Genuine compliments are great for business. When I say to hand out compliments, I’m not just talking about comments like, “Those are some nice shoes.” Get specific about things you’ve seen your team do. If someone made an insightful comment in a meeting, take a moment to tell the person what you appreciated. If you have a team member who went over and above on a sales pitch, let him or her know what you liked about it. Even a simple, “Hey, that was nice of you to bring in donuts on Friday, thanks” will go a long way in helping a person feel seen.

If your team sees you living your values, they will feel more at-ease to do the same. As your company’s leader, it’s your job to set the tone for your business. You’ve built the culture, so make sure you’re delivering on it, too. When your staff sees you living by the culture you’ve created, they’ll be willing and ready to participate in it, too.

As leaders, it can be a challenge to develop one-on-one relationships with your team as your company starts to scale. But that’s when it’s even more important to share that they are a valued part of the team. It takes a village, which is why caring about your employees is the only way to do business.

Jim Allen is a business leader and entrepreneur who has built one of the top-producing real estate groups in the Triangle. He is President of The Jim Allen Group, which is consistently named one of the top real estate teams in North Carolina and even North America.