Good leaders treat everyone with respect. But what practices can best help leaders show employees they are respected?
Harvard Business Review offers the following behaviors leaders can employ to ensure they treat all employees with respect.
- Build trust. Develop positive relationships; share knowledge and expertise; and be consistent in how you treat people.
- Value diversity. Hire people from diverse backgrounds; check your unconscious biases; encourage perspectives that challenge the status quo; and treat everyone equally.
- Be aware of employees’ emotions. Although you cannot know everything your team members are going through in their personal and professional lives, ensure they know you are there if they want to discuss concerns.
- Balance compassion and accountability. Establish a company culture that supports work-life balance and emphasize that productivity is not more important than your employees’ well-being.
- Resolve conflicts. If there is tension among team members, you should willingly engage in conflict resolution.
- Give constructive feedback. Ignoring employees’ weaknesses is not helpful, so be direct and honest so you can help them improve.
