As the holiday season approaches each year bosses and managers often think about ways to show appreciation for those who work for them, as well as to customers, vendors and associates.
The best way to show appreciation is to do right by all the people related to your business, all year long. There are many ways for the manager to do right by his or her people, far too many for any one list. Here are some bedrock ways, however. As a manager you will discover that observing these fundamental ways of treating people well brings you and them a reduction in stress. Violate these basically decent and morally right standards and everybody's stress will rise, including your own. Observe them and stress levels will drop.
Be honest and fair. Pay your workers and vendors what you agree to pay them. Pay on time. Do not "nickle and dime" anybody. Do not cut corners when it comes to compensation for hours worked, overtime or compensation time. Nobody wants to work for or have business dealings with a person who is a cheat, a chiseler, a miser, a crook, or so tight with money that every financial discussion triggers a near nervous breakdown. If you do not want the reputation of being Scrooge or a small time thief don't act like one. Cheating, stealing and being unfair are always bad business as well as stress producers.
Tell the truth, even when that is painful. Lying is a stress-producer. The manager who lies creates the burden of remembering what message was given and to whom. The remembering needs to be exact because it is often in the little details that people find out the lie. The more lies you tell the more you must remember and the greater the stress trying to keep all the stories straight. By contrast, the manager who tells the truth has nothing to keep track of. The truth is always the truth.
Lying also creates a burden for those who are deceived: family, associates, customers, workers and vendors. Questionable trust always makes for stress. The deeper the mistrust the greater will be the stress and the deterioration of the workplace. When the manager lies everyone else knows it, sooner or later, usually sooner. Respect and trust evaporate, of course. Lying breeds lying. Soon others begin lying to protect themselves. Eventually nobody trusts anybody.
Respect the time needs of others. This includes letting that phone conversation end when the other party obviously needs or wants it to end. It includes not holding vendors or workers past quitting time, not manipulating people around you to "volunteer" their Saturday mornings, evenings or weekends, and not calling or otherwise bothering them when they are at home trying to live their non-work life. It means forecasting many months in advance any anticipated layoffs, slowdowns or periods of prolonged overtime. It means getting vacations and leave time worked out and scheduled well ahead of time so that people can plan, reliably, around their jobs. It means many small little things such as ending meetings on time or early, being flexible when somebody needs to come to work early in order to leave early, scheduling meetings with individuals ahead of time so as to allow them time to plan around the meeting.
Holidays are an easy time to express appreciation to one and all. Be flexible with time, recognizing that those who work for you and with you need time to tend to holiday and family matters. Check out ahead of time whether that office party would be a help or a hindrance! Schedule holiday events related to work at a time and in a place that people tell you is convenient. Remember, they won't tell you unless you ask, so ask them!
Respect the privacy of every person. No one gives the manager the right to pry or to know anything about their personal relationships or issues. The manager is the manager, not the FBI, not God and not the guardian of anyone else. Of course it is important to express care and support at times of bereavement, illness, health problems and family problems. But there is a line between expressing care and prying. People will always let the manager know what they want the manager to know. They will establish the line. Stay on your side of the line! That builds trust that it is safe to open up to the manager. And that reduces stress.
Even Scrooge was moved to human kindness at Christmas. A manager who does right by people will discover that how he or she treats people at Christmas is no different than all the rest of the year. If you find that you need to treat people differently at Christmas, consider that fact a wake up call to improve how you treat people during all the rest of the year.
It is a warning, not a compliment, if folks congratulate you for being so different in a nice way during the holidays.
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