Becoming a Respected Leader

Early on in my leadership career, I have no problem admitting that I didn’t receive the respect from my employees (or earn it) as much as I have later in my career.  I believe this is because I felt some animosity that I was this young gun working 20 hour days as the “boss” and many of my employees were doing your typical 8-5, and occasionally taking a pager with them to handle off-hour calls. One could say that I was more of “do your job because that is what you are being paid for” rather than fully understanding their upside wasn’t as great as mine and why I had all the responsibilities and workload that I had.

When I began Changing My Lens, and seeing things from my employees’ perspective, I realized I was probably not the best leader and worthy of their full respect. It certainly wasn’t from a lack of work ethic as I have always been a hands-on leader with a workaholic DNA, it was more of the way that I treated some of my employees. I expected professionalism from them, yet I wasn’t treating them as a professional.

I have learned the most important thing to being a respected leader is to first show respect to your employees.  This sounds pretty obvious and generic, but many leaders equate their title and position in the organization to the amount of respect that they are owed. I have also learned over my career that is ok to admit when I screw up or not make the best decision.  Early on I would never speak of my bad decisions.  However, I am human, like my employees, and am going to mess things up once and awhile. By admitting these faults I actually earned more respect.

As a leader, you are sometimes tasked with making difficult personnel decisions.  It is extremely important that you are consistent and use the same process in making these decisions. One of the major cancers in a company’s culture is favoritism and preferential treatment. I recently worked on a project where this was a major issue and was 100% due to the leadership and they were unwilling to change.  There is no place for that in a successful company, and it is certainly a quick way to lose respect as a leader.

Keep in mind as you read this article, that by following some of these suggestions it will not make you more liked by your employees. If you look back at history, some of the most effective leaders are not the most liked (Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos), but they are/were very respected for their accomplishments.

“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers” – Stephen Covey