Tag: Becoming a Better Leader

There are multiple generations that work together in the workplace today.

Baby boomers are starting to edge toward retirement age and they may even be staying in the workplace longer than before, while millennials are just at the start of their careers, with generation X sandwiched in the middle.

This can cause some discomfort for people, especially in circumstances when the traditional hierarchy of the most senior person being in charge changes.

What happens when you have older workers and younger bosses?

Affects the Whole Company

The Journal of Organizational Psychology recently published a study based on a survey that examined the phenomenon of workers having managers that are younger than they are. In some cases, the younger workers were the same age as the children of the older workers.

Researchers noted some interesting results.

In this survey of 8,000 German employees at 61 different companies, organisations where people had a greater number of younger managers had 12% more negative feelings about the workplace.

A few employees feeling negative thoughts can have an impact on the company as a whole. The negative feelings may even affect those employees directly a part of a situation with unconventional age differences.

These businesses also did worse when it came to organizational and financial performance.

Status Incongruence

This phenomenon of having younger people promoted over more senior workers is part of what is known as ‘status incongruence’. Status incongruence is not a new phenomenon and was also seen when women began being put into positions of management over men.

In the past, older employees tended to be in executive positions within a company while the younger employees were the rank and file.

Now, the recession of 2007 changed this with more older workers staying in the workplace longer. One survey by Careerbuilder.com found that 69 percent of workers over the age of 55 had bosses younger than them.

The Solution

The differences among the generations in the workplace today can have a positive effect by creating a more diverse workforce.

However, these differences can spark some issues. Among other things, for older employees, a younger manager may make them feel like a failure in their lack of upward movement.

The best solution to deal with this is in manager training. It’s important that managers be trained to understand status incongruence and learn how to deal with those that may feel uncomfortable with the age difference in a supervisory relationship.

CEOs, the leaders of the corporate world, are generally viewed as the purse-holding decision makers who push their businesses forward toward growth and prosperity. They are the face of the company, and, in cultures where individual performance is valued more than the team as a whole, CEOs are the movers and shakers in innovation and development.

As a result, chief executive officers around the world are rewarded with the same image in mind. On average among companies around the world, CEOs are paid between 50 and 100 times more than average workers. In the United States, the divide is even greater with CEOs earning about 350 times as much.

A closer look, though, has many wondering if these individuals really hold as much power as people think. Is the amount that CEOs are paid worth it?

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (Professor at Columbia University and University College London) has some answers.

Good CEOs Shape More Than Culture

An organisation’s culture is often shaped from the top down. Things start with the CEO and trickle down to entry-level workers.

In a study that looked at the CEOs of 32 different technology firms, researchers found that CEOs who are excited and inquisitive are leaders of organizations where employees are take-charge entrepreneurs. CEOs with an intense drive tend to create a corporate culture centered on results, while caring CEOs run a company with an empathetic culture.

These are important factors in a company’s success. However, other aspects can be viewed as even more valuable.

• There is a strong correlation between the CEO’s public reputation and the company’s value and stock prices.
• The psychological profile of the CEO can determine the company’s performance.
• The judgment of the CEO affects nearly every managerial decision, strategic decision and vital process within the company.

Bad CEOs Play a Role, Too

Some of the most famous corporate disasters have stemmed from the poor judgment and ethical decisions made by the leaders. Just look at Enron, HP, Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch, which are some of the most well-known situations in contemporary business.

CEOs with volatile, antisocial and unpredictable personalities are often at the helm of companies where employees feel less connected and engaged with their employers. As a result, there is less productivity and more turnover. The corporate culture tends to be more negative overall. These companies often have more financial losses.

Beyond the hits that businesses take because of low productivity and lost work, the CEOs who are more narcissistic tend to make payment decisions that give them a greater salary package than more positive and productive CEOs.

CEOs are More Important Than Ever

Over the past 60 years, a look at more than 18,000 firms shows that a CEO’s effect on the company’s performance is becoming even more important. While there is no dynamic shift that has taken place on the workload of the CEO, some feel that the general public and company investors place an increased importance on the role of the CEO.

As this perception (and resulting salary) continues to grow, so can the resentment from employees making far less than the CEO. To create a culture of growth, CEOs need to take the perceived importance from others and put it to practice in their business, showing their employees why they are deserving of their salary and merit.

While managers and executives can spend their time hemming, hawing, and trying to guess whether or not an employee is planning on quitting, there has been very little research done on the subject.

Because of that, Timothy Gardner (Professor at Utah State University) and Peter Hom (Professor at Arizona State University) conducted studies into the signs and signals that an employee is likely to quit.

The researchers found some habits that might have appeared to be solid predictors were not true indicators of someone quitting, while other behavioral changes that may have been chalked up to having a bad day were strong signals that an employee is considering voluntarily leaving the position.

After several rounds of surveys, studies and analysis, the authors found that these are the top 10 signs that someone is about to quit their job:

1. Decrease in productivity.
2. Lower tendency to work as a team player.
3. Doing the minimum amount of work for much longer periods of time.
4. Less interest in pleasing managers.
5. Hesitation to commit to long-term deadlines and projects.
6. More negative attitude.
7. Putting forth less effort and having less motivation.
8. Being less focused on the job and other employer-related matters.
9. Expressing greater and more frequent job dissatisfaction.
10. Expressing greater and more frequent dissatisfaction with supervisors.

Many of these are more subtle hints than employers usually expect to see. Typically, managers are on the lookout for telltale and widely circulated folkloric signals. However, according to the study, these signal are very infrequent in practice and include things such as:

• Wearing more casual work apparel.
• Leaving printed copies of resumes in the open.
• Arriving late for work or having more doctor’s appointments than in the past.
• Asking co-workers for contacts at other organizations.
• Demonstrating bad or poor attitude, or anger.

If you’re a manager, it’s important to start making sure your employees (especially top performers) don’t quit unexpectedly and too soon. Communicate with your staff to see what they like and don’t like about their jobs. Then look for ways to motivate them and increase the chances of them staying.

If you’re an employee who is unsatisfied, remember that you might have been exhibiting these behaviors, even subconsciously, for months. To avoid any hints that you are looking to quit, keep giving your best and showing enthusiasm for the organization. Don’t drop your productivity, continue to work as a team player, and take note of any of the other 10 indicators you might be showing.

Getting honest feedback isn’t always easy when you’re the boss.

Your employees might not feel comfortable being forthright. You may not even realize what you’re doing is counterproductive to the team effort.

Here are a few ways that you can tell whether or not you’re doing a good job as a leader, thanks to expert opinions and research.

Are you:

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Being Positive and Happy

One study found that people that are happy tend to make effective leaders, and these leaders typically demonstrate a transformational management style.

This isn’t so much about being the type of person that’s always smiling or laughing at work, but one that’s hopeful, positive, inspiring and motivational.

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Being an Agent of Change

Researchers found that many younger managers are seen as more effective leaders compared to older managers in the workplace.

That’s often because younger people are more willing to embrace change. Not only does this involve trying a new approach, but it also entails leaders who show a willingness to improve themselves.

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Being Respectful

Employees that feel respected by their leaders are more engaged.

Engagement can equal more employee satisfaction, which might equate to less turnover and better performance. All of these statistics are marks of a good leader.

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Being a Visionary

One key to being a leader is actually leading your staff in the direction that you want them to go, and this requires having a clear vision that you can articulate.

Leaders that struggle are those that lack vision, are unable to guide their staff towards this vision, or get everyone working towards that vision together.

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Being Boring and Predictable

Ever had that boss where you never knew exactly which personality type would show up at work everyday? You probably disliked him because he wasn’t predictable.

This boss wasn’t emotionally mature and lacked the desired traits of being agreeable, diligent and emotionally stable. It may be funny for a minute to see a person in power show up to work as an evil twin, but over time, this can get old and it makes for a stressful work environment.

According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (Professor at Columbia University and University College London):

The best managers in the world tend to be stable rather than excitable, consistent rather than erratic, as well as polite and considerate.

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Being a Hard Worker

That hard work you put in to become a leader, shows by the role you play in the company.

Conscientiousness - i.e. being hardworking, careful, vigilant and wanting to do a good job - plays an important role in becoming and being a successful leader.

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Being Well Rested

Many leaders are sleep-deprived most of the time. Furthermore, they might cause their team to be low on sleep as well, by expecting them to engage in work at odd hours.

If you want to be a better and more charismatic leader, make an extra effort to ensure you and your team are well rested.

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Being A Praise Giver

82 percent of people do not feel like they receive enough recognition from management for their contributions.

And 40 percent of people said they would apply more effort into their work if they were recognized more.

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Being Empathetic

Unfortunately, many leaders lack one basic quality that holds them back in their business practices: Empathy.

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand or share other people’s experiences and emotions. To master this important ability, you have to constantly practice it.

Hopefully, you’re starting to feel a little more confident in your standing as a great leader. If you’re not, these are perfect guidelines to serve as model behavior.

Regardless of the era or industry, society’s exposure to outspoken, abrasive, and sometimes cruel management tactics, has been a constant factor.

Industry leaders such as Steve Jobs, have seen their management styles perceived as abusive, mean, or cruel.

Amazingly, while some view managers like Jobs as abusive, others saw Jobs’ style as an extremely effective factor in the raising of their own performance at Apple.

How is it, then, that the aggressive management styles of some business leaders can be seen by some employees as abusive, while others find it motivating? Personal perception would seem to be the defining factor of an employee’s reality.

Researchers have found that “social contextual factors” play a major role in determining how aggressive verbal and nonverbal behaviors are perceived as either abusive or motivating.

These are the factors that determine how an abusive leadership style is perceived.

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How effective is leadership in the development of those being led?

A leader whose aggressive management style results in positive achievements and successful task completion, will be viewed more favorably.

Even when the leader’s style involves harsh and aggressive criticism, positive results turn the management tactics into a motivating factor, and not abuse.

Perhaps the most obvious, and visible example would be Steve Jobs. Jobs’ leadership style was brought into question when Apple struggled, but seen as a highly effective example of leadership as Apple became hugely successful.

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Is the leader seen as trustworthy?

Trust in leadership can go a long way toward determining the amount of “abuse” an employee will put up with.

Trust can turn the perception of abuse (e.g. “he’s just trying to bully me into accomplishing the impossible”), into one of motivation (e.g. “He thinks I am capable of a higher quality of work”).

Employees who trust their supervisor tend to take a positive view of comments which could be viewed as either abusive or motivational.

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Do the motives of leadership seem transparent and honest?

When a leader’s actions are explained with genuine reasons, their employees are more inclined to give them the benefit-of-the-doubt.

Even harmful moves, undertaken by leadership, can be viewed by employees as honest mistakes, when leadership has displayed a level of fairness.

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How do co-workers feel about leadership?

No matter how hard we may try to remain grounded in our own perceptions, the perceptions of others still can play a part in how leadership and management are viewed.

Remarks about leadership, from team members and co-workers, can reveal a wide range of treatments and experiences at the hands of leadership. Depending on how those experiences are relayed (abusive or fair) can go a long way in forming general opinions.

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Whether you’re deciding on the appropriateness of your own management style, or evaluating the the style of another person, it is useful to keep these factors in mind. They can help you make a proper evaluation of the situation and decide on the best approach.

You’d think that a boss who is only unfair sometimes, is preferable to someone who is always unfair; however, you’d be wrong.

A new study has found that employees have more job satisfaction and are less stressed when their boss is consistently, predictably unfair.

According to a researcher at Michigan State University, Fadel Matta, it is better to have supervisors who are consistent jerks, than if they are not fair some of the time and fair other times. This is because people want to know what to expect when they come to work.

The study was divided into two parts.

In one experiment, college students were to estimate the hypothetical stock price of a company using information about its performance, and they were told that their classmates would sit in a different room to act as their supervisors.

During the experiment, the students had their heart rates monitored to test stress levels, while they were divided into three groups. One group consistently received positive feedback, the second received a constant stream of negative statements, and the last group received a mix of both.

The results showed that those who were praised fared the best according to their heart rate variation—no surprise there—while those who were constantly given negative feedback did better than the group who got mixed messages.

The second part involved asking employees in a variety of jobs and industries to complete daily questionnaires for three weeks about how they perceive fairness. The hire-ups were also given surveys at the beginning of the study to gauge their self-control. Once again the results corroborated the findings from the other experiment. Employees who’s bosses behaved unpredictably were more likely to be dissatisfied, stressed and emotionally drained, as compared to employees who were always treated unfairly.

So, as a supervisor, what should you do?

The key, according to Matta, is to prepare your staff for potentially unfair circumstances. He says that being unfair is sometimes a necessity because there is a limited amount of time and resources available in most workplaces.

However, if you prepare your employees beforehand so that the uncertainty is diminished, they will be more understanding and at ease. Don’t keep them guessing because the stress from not knowing what’s to come is ten times worse.

For example, you might say, “Next week XYZ will be happening and ABC decision will be announced.”