Leadership Minute: Leadership Hacks

A regular column devoted to developing the skills necessary to lead in the 21st century workplace.

I got the idea for this post after reading Fred Wilson’s Productivity Hacks blog post yesterday. In it he shares three tips for improving your productivity. He gives credit for the tips to Mark Suster who posted his Productivity Hacks on Tuesday.

Here are three Leadership Hacks to help you build stronger relationships with your team members.

1. Say “Good Morning” to each of your direct reports … every day.

While this may sound trivial, make it a point to walk around and say, “Hi” each morning. This small, simple act of checking in shows your interest, builds trust, and means more to an employee than you realize. Simply consider it an early morning deposit in their emotional bank account.

2. Look your employee in the eyes when they are speaking to you … always.

You’re busy. In most cases, when an employee comes by, you’re either in the middle of 10 things, rushing to get a report done, or on your way out the door to a meeting. With all this going on, your employee starts talking, and if you are like me, 8 out of 10 times, you keep right on doing what you are doing.

Let’s be honest, there is no way one can fully listen under those circumstances. Show your employees the respect they deserve. Stop what you’re doing, look them in the eyes, and listen.

3. Don’t answer the phone when you are in a one-on-one meeting.

This hack, similar to the last, is about fair, respectful treatment of your employees. I had a boss early in my career that could never miss a call. It was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. If your time is limited with your employees, work hard at making sure you avoid distractions when the scheduled time is theirs.

That’s my three hacks … what do you think? Do you have other leadership tips or tricks to share?

Author: Jeremy Victor | Website | Twitter

Jeremy's the founder of Make Good Media and Editor In Chief of B2Bbloggers.com. B2Bbloggers.com is a B2B Marketing online magazine discussing the evolution of B2B marketing. Topics include content marketing, B2B social media, demand generation, marketing automation, and more. Sign up. Get all the articles via email.