A Safe Place to Work
The first thing your organization owes its employees is their physical safety at work. Since you are their first-line supervisor, it’s your responsibility to make sure that the work area is well lit, ergonomically appropriate and free of any safety hazards.
We tend to take workplace safety for granted, and we shouldn’t!
The other kind of safety is emotional safety.
The folks on your team must feel safe from bullying or hostility from people in or outside your department, including customers. To make sure you hear about and jump on any problem that might arise, ask your teammates every day “How are you doing? Anything I can help you with?” and listen to their answers!
Everyone deserves respect at work. Your co-workers deserve to be treated as adults, and with dignity. At your next weekly staff meeting, why not ask your teammates “What do respect and dignity mean to you?” That will start a lively and Team Mojo-building conversation!
The Tools, Information and Latitude To Do Their Jobs
You know how I feel about Godzilla, the mascot for pointless bureaucracy. Godzilla is the enemy of team spirit and employee motivation. A big part of your job is to make sure your employees know everything they need to know (about product changes, releases and inventory issues, e.g.) and to improve or remove bureaucratic processes that slow them down.
If they need tools, make sure they get them. You are their advocate. Your job is to let higher-ups see how equipping your teammates to do their jobs unimpeded is a win for the company, too.
You owe your employees the latitude to do their jobs without having to stop and fill out forms or get approvals every three seconds. You trust them, right? Trust them to do the right thing, and watch them respond by beating all their targets!
You are the champion for inside-sales effectiveness now. You’re driving a righteous managerial bulldozer now, and you’re going to use it to move boulders out of your teammates’ way!
The Truth
You owe your teammates the truth about changes at work that could affect them.
Everybody wants visibility, and the more clearly your team members can see the road ahead of them at work, the more focused they can be. Being a supervisor doesn’t mean keeping secrets.
Undoubtedly there will be discussions at the manager level that aren’t initially appropriate for general discussion. It’s up to you to let your higher-ups know when it’s time to make that information public.
Your Attention
A manager’s most important role is coach to his or her employees. Keep your door open as much as you can, and check in with your teammates whenever you have a moment.
When there are disturbances in the Force, you want to know about them immediately so you can figure out what’s up and get them resolved.
The Authentic You
The last thing you owe your team members is for them to deal with the real Roger, the Roger they always knew, and not a fake version of Roger who looks like you but spouts supervisory B.S.
You owe it to them and to yourself to tell the truth, especially about sticky human topics like pay, conflict and the intermittent frustrations your employees will inevitably experience (as will you)!
We can solve any problem as long as we talk openly about it and stay human.
Source: Linkedin.com