eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Employees do not just leave organisation, in some instances, they leave toxic bosses. Some genuinely love their jobs, but cannot thrive under toxic leadership. Strangely, even some toxic ones are in denial that they are actually toxic.
There is no amount of pay rise that can compensate for a toxic environment. There are some people who developed health conditions because of toxicity in the places that they work. I will do an article on toxic leadership in the near future.
What type of leader are you? How different has the organisation been since you started leading it? How well has the life of the people you are working with improved? If you are to step down today who will mourn in the organisation? There are some people who left organisations years ago who are still being talked about in terms of the impact they had on the business. Others are rarely talked about.
There is nothing that thrives under bad leadership. People thrive under great leadership. Relationships thrive with great leadership. Your businesses thrive with great leadership.
As a leader, learn to measure your success as a leader by the success of the people that you lead. There is no success to talk about if the people you are leading at whatever level are not thriving. True leadership is about change. If you are a leader, and there is nothing changing, you are not actually a leader. How can you become the leader that is inspirational and transformational? This is the question that I want to deal with this week. What do employees look for in their “bosses”? What are the bosses that will forever be memorable in any organisation?
Employees treasure the following bosses:
Provide a safe space for growth
Secure leaders are not afraid of the growth of their subordinates. They actually invest in their growth in their personal development. Create an atmosphere where your employees can be confident to learn and grow.
Open career doors
Create opportunities for the people that you lead and usher them into areas that they may not even have had access to. That is inspirational leadership. You help the people that you lead to experience their full potential. You stretch them to levels they even may not even imagined. That is true leadership.
Defend your employees
There are bosses who have mastered the art of dressing down their employees in front of fellow staff members, and some in the face of customers. Learn to defend your employees especially when they need it. Employees will remember bosses who stood in when everyone else was making excuses and walking out. Be the boss that inspires. Prioritise your employees. They are the ones who make your goals see the light of day.
Recognise and reward your staff
Human beings thrive on appreciation. They do well when they know that someone is watching their effort, and someone is going to celebrate the effort as well. Create reward mechanisms that will see your employees benefiting from their hard work. The numbers in the business are always visible to your staff. They know when you are making losses, they know when you are making profits. They even know what you earn in allowances. Create a culture of reward. How you reward is entirely up to your organisation as the dynamics are different.
In this harsh environment, strive to ensure that your staff earn humane wages that allow them to have a decent (not necessarily a flashy life). Feed the horse that takes care of your business. You cannot afford to pay a blind eye to the realities out there.
Develop leaders from your employees
The role of leadership is never to create followers, but to create more impactful leaders. Inspirational leaders create more leaders. No matter how much you love your position, you will not always be there. One day you have to retire, or you may even die before your contract goes anywhere. That is life. True leaders facilitate continuity rather than stand in the way of it. Identify talent that you can develop from your organisation and build on that.
Lead by Example
Mahatma Gandhi statute has a profound inscription, “My life, my message”. Great leaders, lead by example. They lead with integrity. Let me share a story that brings out this point more clearly. A young boy became so obsessed with eating sugar. His mother was quite upset with this and had tried so many ways stop her son from eating it. However none of them seemed to work, so she decided to take her son to go and see his idol — Mahatma Gandhi, in the hope that her son may listen to him. They walked for miles under the scorching sun to reach Gandhi’s ashram , there she shared with Gandhi her situation — “Gandhi my , my son consumes far too much sugar will you please tell him it’s bad for his health?”After listening to the woman patiently, Gandhi thought for a while and refused to give the boy advise and told him to return in two weeks.
The mother left a little perplexed and wondered why Gandhi had not asked the boy to stop eating sugar straight away.
Two weeks later they returned to visit Gandhi, this time Gandhi looked at the boy and said — “Boy, you stop eating sugar it’s not good for your health”.
The boy nodded towards Gandhi and said he would do his best to stop eating sugar. The boy’s mother was curious as to why Gandhi needed two weeks to tell her son that. Gandhi smiled to her and said, “Two weeks ago I had an obsession with sugar, I needed to cut back myself”.
Now, this is integrity! Leaders, do not just talk they walk the talk. Inspire your employees.
Join me on Star FM on Wednesdays (09:40am-10:00am) for some moments of inspiration on the Breeze with V Candy.
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development. Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge. Send your feedback to [email protected] or Visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: wa.me//263780055152 or call +263772467255.
