Making your direct reports and people you work with feel wanted and appreciated is not something that we give a lot of focus and attention to, but it’s critical to your company’s success…and its bottom line (not to mention your pay and bonus).

Making your people feel wanted and appreciated doesn’t have to be something that is money-related or exorbitant in terms of the time and effort you have to put in. It can be something as simple as a genuine “Thank You” when they do something good…or even GREAT.  I know this is a simple thought, but it’s got huge dividends.

Spend the time and invest in your people because it really doesn’t take a lot of time and effort and again, the payoff upside is HUGE, larger than you can comprehend right now because a simple Thank You or a “Job Well Done” email seems trivial, it’s not.  In this current world/reality of higher unemployment, more work for less pay, 24/7 connectedness, feeling wanted and appreciated by your boss and your company can go a long, long way.

So make yourself a note to start catching people doing good work and tell them how valuable they are to you and your organization.  They just might reward you with LOYALTY and the BEST years of their lives…at no extra cost to you.

Well, unless you consider the time to say Thank You an extra cost.  Sounds silly, right?  Of course it is.  Spend/Invest the time right now in sending a Thank You note to someone you rely on and who makes YOU look good.

Side Note: I hope it’s clear that you should be doing the above because you want to and not purely for any financial gain.  If it’s the latter, people will eventually see through your efforts and pick up on what you’re trying to do…manipulate survey results or feedback just to get a promotion or a better rating.  Trust me when I say that people are smarter than you think.  Do this little tip only if you’re genuinely interested in your people.

When you catch your team sending emails over the weekend or late at night on a consistent basis, tell them to UNPLUG and give it a rest.  We need our precious downtime to recharge our batteries and have a life outside the office.  Sure, work IS important, and as a boss you want to make sure your team is getting their work done, but it’s also important not to have your team burnout.

If your team can’t unplug either one of the following things is true:

a. You’re overworking them
b. They’re incompetent
c. Prefer to work all the time.

Figure out which one of the above it is.  If it’s the first two, then fix it.  If it’s the latter, just let it be.  Everyone works differently and some people like to get things done outside of “office hours.”  Sure you can suggest that they unplug outside the office from time to time, but likely these kinds of employees want to be tied to their Blackberry or email.

By the way, take this advice for yourself.  Unplug more.  It’ll do you good.

Some mornings when I’m getting ready for work, inspiration for a blog post hits me so I send myself a brief outline of the idea.  This morning I was thinking about how it’s impossible to always know what to do or to have the answer ready when someone comes asking questions.  Some bosses try to fake their way through the conversation.  That’s the wrong way of course. The right way is to say “I don’t know, but here’s what we can do to find out…” or something along those lines.

It turns out this approach is backed up by recent research from Stanford confirms that “the less assured expert prompted higher ratings than the certain expert.”

By the way, this was the snippet that I emailed myself.  The thought was about how you should be open to new ideas and ways of working.

The boss doesn’t always know what’s best and that’s a good thing. Progress is made with new ideas and new initiatives.  This requires new thinking. Always keep an open mind to suggestions because that one idea you’re so adamantly against just might be the next big thing for your company.

Net, net, what I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be expected to have all the answers, all the time – and you’ll actually achieve more because you don’t know everything.  That was the first part of my post.

The thought I had this morning centered on the fact that you should be open to new ideas and ways of doing things.  Your direct reports will respect you more, be more fully engaged with their work and you’ll accomplish more as a team.  That’s pretty cool stuff, all because you have the humility and confidence in yourself to be okay with not knowing all the answers, all the time.

Side Note: In searching for the answers, you never know the fun and interesting stuff you’ll come across, learn and use from this point forward in your life.  Now that’s really cool, don’t you think?  Learn, explore, delegate, have fun, empower others, all because you said the simple phrase “I don’t know.”

What kind of boss are you?
Do you even know?

Two interesting questions and here’s one more: would your direct reports ever “trade you in” for another boss?

In short, are you delivering the goods?  Are you the kind of boss that people want to work for?

No, this is NOT about being an understanding boss or super-friendly with your team.  While these personality type things are great, it’s about providing an atmosphere of trust and support for your direct reports.  It’s about being the type of boss that pushes them to higher levels in their pursuit of their craft.

It’s about not being an asshole, too, but you’ll find that you can be tough and lean on them as long as you’re doing it when it counts and they need you the most.

I could go on and on about this topic, but hopefully you’re getting the gist of what I’m sharing with you…being a great boss is about creating an environment of mutual respect, that wonderful place where you are developing and growing your people and helping them and work just doesn’t seem like work to them. 

Do this for your direct reports and you’ll find people running to be on your team whenever there’s a vacancy on your team.  That’s when you know you’ve gone from “run of the mill” boss status to “never trade you in” boss status.  It’s a worthy goal, don’t you think?

I caught a quote from Tim Ferriss on Facebook:

“Good policies: don’t repeat yourself, and don’t make simple decisions for other people.  Let employees be independent up to a threshold.”

The first one is a no-brainer – don’t repeat yourself.  If you find yourself doing just that, it means you’re either not clear or you have bigger problems on your hands – namely the people you work with might need to be changed.

On the second point of not making simple decisions for people, Tim is spot on.  If you take away decision making power from your direct reports, you’ll have more work.  If you give your people the ability to start making more decisions, they’ll surprise you with what they come up with.  If you are able to tear yourself away from every little detail, you’ll find that your mind is clearer and you have more time to think and do GREAT WORK.

I’m sure you already know this, but it’s something to constantly remind ourselves, especially if you find that you’re working much later than everyone else.  At a certain point you have to stop blaming your work load and start blaming yourself.  Delegate more and share decision-making duties with those around you.  Focus on these two core things and you’ll save yourself hours of work each week and your people will love you more.

Here’s to Your Outsized Success

Side Note: If you don’t think Tim’s an authority enough to follow, how about Honest Abe?

“The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do for themselves.” – Abraham Lincoln

Bottom line, don’t do stuff that other people should and could be doing on their own – they grow faster that way!