Building a Supportive Environment: The Importance of Kindness

An attitude is more than just an expression of how you feel; it is the way you make others feel, it is how people will perceive you and what you represent. In a business environment, being friendly is pretty much the minimum standard for building a community. However, people are not robots. We have real things and emotions that impact our mood. To combat the repercussions that could come from overt negativity, we need to understand why it is important to be kind and what it leads to. 

In any team setting there will be situations of uncertainty, worry, or even bad attitudes among members. While it’s normal to experience these issues, they must be dealt with to mitigate the impact they have on the team and the overall mission. When you focus on the positive in what you do, you can handle interactions far more rationally. 

This level of control is the first step to emotional intelligence and being a professional in the workplace. This is important for career advancement and community building, especially after studies have shown that nearly 60% of workers in America have considered leaving their job because of a co-worker. Plus, let’s be honest, if you’ve made it this far into the article, you’ve probably dealt with someone at work who’s tested your patience. If you are interested in building an empowering community for your organization then building a friendly and supportive environment is the best way to do so.  

Here are some ways to actively implement this:

Value In The Negative

When a negative situation happens, it feels like everything is falling apart and you may begin to overthink. However, negative or hard situations are not there to break you down— they can equip you to handle further difficulties should you face the situation and not avoid it. 

For example, let’s say you have a co-worker who does not follow through on their tasks or maybe leaves out key details. This would annoy anyone passionate in their role as this person is directly hindering production quality. While one could become frustrated, bring it to HR, or just clean up the mess that person made, they could instead ensure they’re on the same page with this co-worker at all times. This may require staying on top of them frequently, or making goals for them but that is a small price to pay in contrast to a lack of quality work. 

Put Your Pride Aside

The core reason for ending up in conflict most of the time is because of ego. It’s easy to see what everyone else is doing wrong, but how often do we look at our role in situations of conflict? When you check your ego, you become far more positive in the eyes of your team and you will be easier to work with.

Sounds great, right? It is, but it is also difficult to do, especially when rank enters the picture. For the sake of the team, put your ego in check before focusing on the actions of others.

Embrace Autonomy

Teamwork is great and staying on the same page is important, but just like anything else, it needs to be balanced. To ensure the satisfaction of team members and the production of quality work, everyone needs time to work independently. This can be balanced by having planned meetings at appropriate times. Each meeting can have goals that you want to have reached by the time they happen to ensure the time apart is used efficiently. This is also going to be beneficial to the planning process. 

Again, a supportive environment cannot be built by over-controlling. Teams have to assess what areas to focus their support on. Balancing this by managing the team to produce their work will have everyone engaged. This will not only help the quality of work but it will allow members to improve as professionals.

Conclusion 

With today’s working conditions, people are either making the most out of their job or in search of a new one. As an organization, you want to attract talent and build a community around your brand. This starts at an individual level; your attitude and energy are transmissible, so don’t waste that power on negativity.

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What Does Ineffective Leadership Really Look Like?

There is no such thing as a bad team or a bad organization, but there is such a thing as bad leadership, and this problem is toxic to organizations. The attitudes and approaches of a leader are transmitted to the people that work for them. Unfortunately, leaders may not see it this way and instead view their team as being incompetent or difficult to coach. 

If a leader has a bad attitude, how would you expect their team to perform? Now, this may be a more obvious form of ineffective leadership but what about the less obvious? A pivotal part of being a leader is managing people. Some leaders can be very good with that, especially when it comes to building relationships. However, effective leadership involves imposing discipline on team members. A leader who is too emotionally invested in their team may not be able to handle imposing discipline on their members. 

This is where the dichotomy comes into play; there needs to be a balance between connecting with the team and being able to hold the line when necessary. Ineffective leadership happens when the pendulum goes too far one way. This can make it difficult to identify if and when your leader is ineffective. You may see them as overbearing or inconsiderate when they’re using discipline tactics to get the best out of you. On the other hand, you may enjoy how lovely and accommodating your leader is when they may be failing to hold you accountable.

In the end, leadership approaches will vary, as each team will require the methods that best utilize their skills. The measure of an approach's effectiveness will depend on the results displayed by the team. Is the team meeting deadlines? Producing high-quality work? Passionate about what they’re doing? Regularly communicating? Clarifying with and asking the leader for help? 

These are all things to take inventory of when assessing leadership effectiveness, but you will also want to watch for the following:

Communication Barrier

When working with or for someone in a leadership role, there should never be discomfort or a lack of access to communicating with that person. Opening this line of communication should be something the leader takes on. However, if you find that they are not, then subordinates have to take initiative to fix the issue. How do you do that? Communicate with them and communicate with each other. You ultimately want to set the standard by stepping up to lead when others won’t. 

In some cases, there can be a communication barrier either with leadership or within the team due to conflict. When this is the case, it simply needs to be addressed and dealt with (the procedures for which will be up to the organization). A leader who avoids conflict, gives up their power, whether that be failing to discipline team members or address a situation. The bottom line is that it does not build healthy relationships. 

Lack of Discipline

This idea goes a couple of ways, the first being a lack of discipline among members of the organization. Again, a leader who does not impose discipline on their people is doing no benefit to the longevity of their team's success. This must of course be met with standards of implementation to avoid the second common issue. A leader can think they are imposing discipline when they are going too far and may begin micro-managing or failing their role in the supportive aspect. 

Essentially all members of a team must assess the needs to complete whatever it is they set out to do. Once these needs are identified, realistic goals and timelines should be set to prevent straying away from the plan. In the case of leadership, they are simply there to provide support and ensure the process is meeting the established standards.

Taking Too Much Credit

We know that leaders are responsible for their team's outcomes, but a leader who is quick to take all the credit for their team's success is throwing away its value. When a team succeeds, it creates cohesion and a supportive environment. This is especially important today as 89% of employees are leaving their jobs due to feeling unsupported. 

To create an environment that will attract talent, it must have an emphasis on company culture and team inclusivity. The best leaders are humble enough to recognize their team's role in success. They also know the importance of sustaining the environment by, again, giving up the short-term reward for a long-term return. 

Conclusion

You may think nobody gains anything from ineffective leadership, and when it comes to trying to run an organization, this is true. However, someone who has the experience and knows how to navigate an ineffective leader can manage up or do whatever is necessary to mitigate its impact. In doing so, that person becomes an effective leader. 

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Leadership in a High Stress Environment

Did you know that leading people can be stressful? If you didn’t, here’s your “something new” to learn for the day. Leadership will test every bit of patience you have. Unfortunately, this will get the best of you at times. You will wish you had handled situations differently and have to own your mistakes. 

While leaders may like to think of themselves as adaptable, understanding, and generally composed, things happen outside the scope of daily practice in the workplace. Something to consider here is that when we become stressed out or overwhelmed, it feels like everything is coming at us. In reality, we may just be stuck finding a way to prioritize, effectively delegate, and manage our time to navigate the situation. 

This is important to keep in mind, especially considering how short a stressful time lasts when dealt with properly. As a leader, if you are difficult to deal with under pressure, your team will feel less comfortable and refrain from using their efforts to solve the issue. So, a leader could risk their reputation and team cohesion because of a short stress period. 

An effective leader wouldn’t want to risk that, so here’s how they can manage this better:

Begin With Yourself

Leaders who are not content with themselves will find it difficult being able to manage the needs of others. Having healthy rituals and outlets outside of your responsibilities that act as a form of catharsis should be the starting point for any leader. This will keep you and your emotions in check as you’ve allocated time to simply think, time that will not pour over into your work hours.

Manage

An essential part of being a leader is being able to manage numerous components of the daily operation. This includes managing time, emotions, and the team through difficult tasks. It starts with detachment from the scenario, a leader who can adapt and remain calm when faced with change will be able to manage the situation effectively. 

Additionally, a leader who gets the team involved, not by dishing out negativity, but by keeping everyone level-headed and focused, will be successful.

Never Assume The Facts

Constantly asking questions and clarifying the situation is critical. This eliminates a level of uncertainty while keeping the leader and team up to date. Imagine being faced with a problem, you spend days coming up with a solution just to find out critical details have changed.

Who’s fault is this? Leadership. It is not the fault of whatever decision-makers who would, of course, be the easy targets to blame. It is always on the leader to keep their approach and team up to date with the details.

Communicate

Whether this is a briefing or any other form that suits your organization, a leader should address what’s to come. This keeps everyone on the same page and gives the leader a chance to calmly address the situation. As a result, the team will feel more involved, the leader will see the situation more clearly, and everyone should have an idea of what is expected of them. 

It is especially important here to be clear and straight to the point while delivering messages. Leaders can then open up the discussion to hear the thoughts of their team and engage them in a discussion. 

Conclusion

Being a leader comes with immense pressure, navigating responsibilities is by no means a one-step process. It requires leaders to be attentive and have their heads on a swivel while understanding their role in everything that goes on. 

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!