Being a business leader, employee engagement and employee loyalty significantly concern you. Of course, these are essential attributes for any organization’s success, and you need to keep working in this direction. You need to keep evolving new strategies to engage employees actively. Your work does not stop at creating high employee engagement. What is more challenging is to sustain the levels of employee engagement and emotional commitment in your workers. Which strategy do you think will be the most effective in the long run?
You would be amazed to know that as per a report titled ‘State of the Global Workplace’ only 15% of employees are engaged in their work. That means a whopping 85 percent of workers in any given space are merely obliging their job roles. Do you think their bosses do not try enough to create a culture of high productivity and active employee engagement? How do you think you can be different from them? The strategy that will work the best here is to be more supportive of your team. Supporting your employees becomes even more critical when everyone went through a rough patch in 2020. Fortunate were the ones who had each other’s back through the gushing pandemic of 2020. However, what do supportive business leaders exactly do? That is what we are going to find out in this blog. This post shed light on the five most prominent traits of supportive business leaders.
Qualities of supportive leaders
- They keep their doors open
It does not mean that you have to keep your cabin door open all the time in case you were wondering! The inference here is that you should be available for your employees if they wish to approach you. You cannot be a supportive boss if you are not approachable to your team members. You have to inspire your workers’ that you are ready and willing to pay heed to their issues and concerns. That is what supportive leaders do to keep their employees going. They have their doors open for all team members, and their workers can talk to them without any hesitation. That is such a simple thing to do, isn’t it?
- They keep the feedback loop continuous
Great leaders who want to see their employees grow share constant feedback. This feedback is not to criticize but is constructive, and it is aimed at developing employees. How will employees learn and get better if they are not told about their shortcomings and how to overcome them? Supportive leaders take the responsibility to indulge in peer to peer feedback so that there is continuous learning among workers.
You should know that most employees are receptive to feedback, irrespective of whether it is positive or negative. This can be substantiated by statistics from Forbes that around 82% of workers are happy to receive feedback. Besides, 40% of your employees can disengage from work if there is no constant feedback loop. Hence, you can see, feedback is more imperative than you thought!
- They exhibit empathy
You already know the difference between sympathy and empathy. The next thing you should be aware of is that supportive leaders are not sympathetic but empathetic toward their team members. They put effort into understanding their team members’ feelings and emotions and do so by imagining themselves in their team members’ shoes. They can feel what their team members are going through, and they support them. There is no better alternative to winning someone’s loyalty and commitment than endorsing empathy to them.
Imagine how blissful you will feel if someone can understand your emotions and see things from your perspective! By default, your fondness, loyalty, and commitment to that person will scale new heights. The same will happen with your team when you can contemplate and value what they are going through. Once they realize that they have a leader who pays heed to their emotions, they will develop utter staunchness for you and the organization. Not just from employee engagement’s point of view but in general too, the world needs a lot of empathy. Are you willing to make your contribution?
- They have tolerance for errors
Yes, you are right in opining that there is no room for mistakes in critical business operations. However, if you are keen on being a supportive leader, you have to increase your tolerance for errors. Not every error is going to cost you clients or revenues! So, you can be more tolerant of minute mistakes that your team members may make occasionally. If you jump on them for every error, they will lose all their confidence and creativity.
On the contrary, if you support them and mentor them when they make mistakes, they will have great gratitude in their hearts. In that way, they will feel the natural urge to learn at a brisk pace and negate their professional approach’s shortcomings. Anyone can support others in good times when everything is going uphill. But to support people in their lows requires character and conviction. Supportive leaders are full of such characters, and they pay more attention to fixing errors than cribbing about it.
- They appreciate others
Supportive leaders do not envy their subordinates’ success and instead take pride in team members’ achievements. Everyone loves to be appreciated when one puts in honest and genuine effort to achieve goals. Appreciation and recognition work wonders to encourage people to keep doing well and raise the bar every time. To substantiate, as cited by HubSpot, 69% of workers affirm that they would work even harder if they felt appreciated enough by their leaders.
Supportive leaders appreciate their employees and bring out the best in them for their larger good. But how do you figure out what is worth appreciating and what is not? Why do you have to be a miser here? Every inch of improvement and growth in your employees is worth celebrating, and you should have a big heart to recognize every effort. You should show gratitude for your workers just like you want them to be thankful towards you. That is what supportive people do; they keep a big heart or rather wear their hearts on their sleeves.
To conclude, you now know the various traits that supportive leaders exhibit. One significant thing you need to remember is that your supportive leadership is not limited to making the employees feel happy and relieved. You should always see the larger picture! With supportive leadership, you can also boost employee engagement levels within the organization. Furthermore, when you act as an understanding leader, you can upscale the magnitude of employee retention in the organization. Your team’s support will ultimately add more value to your business’s success. So, it is time you change a few things about your leadership for the better!
By Jessica Robinson
