By Kaja Frome
Have you ever hated your boss? Hate might be a strong word, but the implication is clear. If you haven’t had the misfortune of working with a difficult boss, someone you know probably has. As someone who has worked over 10 different jobs in various industries, I have had my fair share of bad bosses. I am tired of bad bosses being ignored while employees continue to suffer. Bad management does nothing but harm the company. With just a few steps, bad management can be remedied. Improving leadership is the first step to making the working class a better place, one bad boss at a time. We will be exploring the effects of good and bad leadership on companies, and the steps that can be taken to improve leadership in business environments. These steps include individual and group training, engaging employees, and a peer feedback and mentoring system.
Results of Bad Management
Low Employee Retention
When employees don’t like their management, they start looking elsewhere for work. The high volume of “help wanted” signs make that task easier.
Instead of spending money to train new employees, companies should be using their funds to implement better training programs for their leaders.
Figure 1: Training cost for new employees 1
Figure 1 shows the average cost to train a new employee, based on the type of business. The average cost for training a new employee in 2020 was $1,111.1 Companies don’t want to lose this money because they can’t retain employees.
Poor Job Performance
When the employee isn’t happy, it is likely that the customer isn’t happy. Employees who are just there to punch a timecard aren’t going the extra mile to help the company succeed. “Without trust among their peers and leadership, they’re not likely to go above and beyond to help create a high-performance organization.”2 This attitude will reflect on the customer, which will, in turn, lower customer satisfaction and repeat business. More money is then lost, which the company could be dedicating to other needed locations.
Lack of Respect
The factors already mentioned all tie into the base element of respect. Figure 2 shows the results of a 2020 employee care report by Limeade, an employee experience software company that specializes in solutions for employee care. 3 The report found that one in four employees leave a company when they don’t feel respected by their company leaders. I have previously left a company within a few months of employment because I didn’t feel valued as an employee. When genuine respect and understanding are found in the workplace, employees are much more likely to stay and recommend the company.
Figure 2: Mutual respect has an impact on employees3
Benefits of Good Leadership
Increased Morals
Employees who feel respected and seen will transmit those feelings to the customers. As managers care for the individual needs of their employees, employees will follow suit. Leading with respect provides greater power.
I experienced this when I worked for an employer who genuinely cared for my needs. As they worked to make sure I was happy in my position, I had a greater desire to help their business succeed. The job was no longer just a job to me but a cause I cared about, in a company I wanted to strengthen. The respect went both ways.
Greater Diversity
Employees must feel recognized and accepted at work as the world becomes increasingly diverse. The key to achieving this goal is through the leadership of a business. Starting by ensuring that the selected managers receive proper training and are held accountable for maintaining a healthy degree of diversity in their teams. Managers who know how to respect and care for their employees will see an increase in workplace diversity. “In managing an increasingly diverse workforce, it is vital that organizations ensure that employees feel included at work. Leaders, as frontline representatives of the organization, play an important role in achieving this aim.”4 Leaders who know how to maintain a healthy degree of diversity in their teams will see greater benefits of a diverse work environment. Benefits include a broader variety of skill sets, ideas from different backgrounds, and a greater connection to the customer.
Customer Satisfaction
When store managers can create a healthy employee climate, they help build a more committed team, increasing customer satisfaction. These benefits are why it is crucial that managers are carefully selected and well-trained.5 If employees are happy to be at work and are shown what it is like to be respected and listened to, they will transfer those feelings to the customer. When problems with customers arise, employees will be comfortable asking for help from their managers, instead of making the problem worse by trying to solve it on their own.
Solutions for Improving Leadership in Your Company
Individual and Group Training
The first step to ensure leadership success is to provide leaders with the proper training. In many base-level jobs, leaders are chosen based on seniority or convenience. While these individuals are usually motivated employees, they often lack the skills needed for effective leadership. Investing in the regular training of these leaders can significantly improve their performance and the performance of the employees under their care. Companies with “well-defined and comprehensive development programs for leaders and managers [. . .] focus on the development of individuals and teams.”6 This focus on their teams produces engaged employees.
Engaged Employees
Engaged employees are involved in, excited, and dedicated to their work and workplace.
Figure 3: Percent of engaged US workforce6
Figure 3 comes from the Gallup State of the American Workplace report. Gallup researched thousands of employees, in hopes of giving business owners data that can improve their businesses. They found that engaged employees increase retention rates by 59%, customer outcomes go up by 10%, and overall profit increases by 21%. These findings are illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Benefits of engaged employees6
Highly engaged organizations must hold their managers accountable as their performance affects the team’s engagement level and overall achievement level. Effective managers are responsible for engaging employees from the employee’s very first day by actively getting to know them, assigning meaningful roles, and bestowing praise when it’s due. An engaged manager creates an engaged team.
Peer Feedback and Mentors
Think back to that bad boss you thought about at the beginning of this article. When you were working for them, did you feel like you had someone you could safely go to with your concerns?
“To achieve maximum employee performance, employees need to promptly and transparently communicate any potential problems or concerns to leadership.”2 Setting up a system where employees can comfortably and confidentially report their experiences with their managers is beneficial for the following reasons: (1) the problems are acknowledged and can be immediately addressed (2) greater sense of trust is built between employees and leadership (3) they can point out weaknesses and help trainers know which areas to focus on.
When areas of weakness are publicized, it can be helpful for a leader to have a mentor to turn to for advice. Mentors provide leaders with a safe place to go when they need guidance. Providing leaders with a mentor can benefit them in their training and provide them with an example of how a leader should be.
The Change Starts with You
Don’t let bad bosses and bad management damage work experiences and company growth. Though the steps for improving management may seem daunting, they can be easily achieved when broken down. If you aren’t currently in a position to influence the training of leaders in your company, plan to meet with your boss (or your boss’s boss) to discuss setting up a peer feedback system. Additionally, you can do your part in becoming an engaged employee. Be active, not passive, in engaging with your leaders and co-workers. You can still lead by example if you don’t have a leadership title. Focus on building your character and expertise and positions of leadership will come to you.7
The leadership of a company influences every employee and by improving leadership, employee satisfaction, and company profit increases. Good leaders have the power to inspire the people under their care to become influential themselves.
Endnotes
- Freifeld, Lorri. 2020. 2020 Training Industry Report. November 17. https://trainingmag.com/2020training-industry-report/.
- Span, Scott. “Lack of Trust in Leadership is the Biggest Issue Impacting Performance.” Recognition and Engagement Excellence Essentials, 05, 2021, http://erl.lib.byu.edu/login/?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/lack-trust-leadership-is-biggestissue-impacting/docview/2556351506/se-2?accountid=4488.
- 2020. Limeade 2020 Employee Care Report. March 5. Accessed 11 Nov 2021. https://www.limeade.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-Employee-Care-Report.pdf.
- Adams, Byron G., M. Christina Meyers, and Lusanda Sekaja. “Positive Leadership: Relationships with Employee Inclusion, Discrimination, and Well‐” Applied Psychology: An International Review 69, no. 4 (September 2020): 1145–73. doi:10.1111/apps.12230.
- Deitz, George, John D. Hansen, Tom DeCarlo, and Emin Babakus. “How Store Managers’ Employee Climate Perceptions Affect Frontline Employee, Customer and Store Performance Outcomes: An Examination in the Small-Store Setting.” European Journal of Marketing 55, no. 10 (October 2021): 2620–48. doi:10.1108/EJM-02-2020-0107.
- 2017. Gallup State of the American Workplace Report. Pages 67-72. Accessed 15 Nov 2021. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx?thank-youreport-form=1.
- Citranglo, Christie. “Strong Managers, Strong Teams: Leadership and Employee Retention.” Business Credit 122, no. 3 (March 2020): 2–4. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=141706130&site=ehostlive&scope=site.