Render the proper level of guidance – or management assistance – based on the questions your employees ask about expectations and resources. In other words, it is premature to promote leadership or team building until employees have the knowledge and experience to move beyond the primary levels of learning. You must lead your employees through a full understanding of the basics before you can guide them up to the next level. If you are a manager, think of yourself as a coach who strives to help your employees climb a mountain and reach the summit. The relevant business units of employees who are highly satisfied with their managers demonstrate a continual, excellent level of performance in terms of productivity and profit, as well as retention and customer satisfaction. The best managers consistently satisfied employees more effectively in all areas of concern by building one-to-one relationships with them. Managers “define and pervade” the work environment by the rules they set and how they treat and interact with their workers. Managers play an important role in the life of their direct reports.

If your employees’ lower-level needs remain unaddressed, then everything you do for them further along the journey is almost irrelevant.”

This is where you should focus your time and energy. “The key to building a strong vibrant workplace lies in meeting employees’ needs at Base Camp and Camp 1. The metrics of achievement for this study included sales volume, profit, customer satisfaction scores, employee turnover levels and productivity. The study examined how great managers discover, hire, direct and retain talented employees. The second study used various measurements of corporate success to identify the best managers. “Great managers do share one thing: Before they do anything else, they first break all the rules of conventional wisdom.” Even if a company offers inspiring leadership, solid benefits and perks, good pay and worthwhile training programs, employees base their tenure on their relationship with their direct supervisor. The major finding stated, “Talented employees need great managers.” Great managers inspire good people to stay with a company.

One study interviewed more than a million employees from different sorts of companies and industries to find out what the most talented of them want from their workplaces.

First break all the rules author