Team Management

There are many theories about different leadership styles. Our favorite is Daniel Goleman's theory of "6 leadership styles" discussed in his book, Primal Leadership. Why do we like it? Because it doesn't only focus on hard skills, and we agree that great leaders are emotionally intelligent and human at the core. In this article, we will take you on a spin of the 6 different styles you are bound to use as a manager.

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💡 You should know: There isn't one style that fits all. The leadership style you use will change depending on different situations. As a manager, it's up to you to gauge which leadership style will best suit your team, and when.

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The 6 leadership styles, what are they and when to apply them

First off, leadership styles refer to the behaviours that leaders adopt to interact with their their teams. Let's look into 6 different styles!

1. The visionary leader

The visionary leadership style creates momentum toward a shared vision. This style is about getting your team aligned towards their North Star.

• Key elements: encouragement of innovation, experimentation and action.

• When should you apply it: Adopt this style when the requirement for direction becomes extremely urgent.

• Importance: Unclear direction often results in a lack of motivation and employee engagement. Visionary leadership helps to shape up teams who have lost sight of their goals and increase their understanding of where they need to go next.

For example: At Officevibe, our mission is to empower managers to lead successful teams. A common understanding and reminder of this vision ensure that the work we do coincides with the products we create.  

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How to become a visionary leader:

• Be bold. Don't be afraid to try new things and experiment.
• Get comfortable with the prospect of failing forward.
• Pinpoint one ambitious goal that the whole team can contribute towards.
• Keep track of tasks moving you towards your direction, or away from it. Adjust accordingly.
• Communicate with. motivation the team's vision and set clear team expectations
• Visionaries delegate. Ask your team for help. Encourage them to share their strengths and express diverse perspectives

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2. The coaching leader

Coaching leaders adopt a coaching mentality to help develop the skill set of their employees and encourage them to shine their strengths by living out their potential. Part of being a coach is helping others to evolve into their role, feel challenged and supported.

• Key elements: encourages improvement and confidence.

• When should you apply it: especially in growing teams, as work gets more complex, you'll team will need more than clear objectives. They will need your encouragement to grow their skills and abilities so that they grow confidence in their ability to perform.

• Importance: A great manager and leader strives for balance to avoid a micromanaging mentality. Provide the right tools and resources available for employees to feel set up for success. This styles also helps you to develop a strong connection with your teams.

For example: Managers at Officevibe love our one-on-one software feature because it allows managers to schedule regular check-ins and continuously keep career-goal conversations. Our teams are not only working to complete a to-do list. They work together to become the best at what they do.

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How to become a coaching leader

• Host frequent 1-on-1s with your team. 
• Provide thoughtful feedback that encourages employees' strengths. 
• Reflect with each team member and specify what they're doing well, to reach their full potential.

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If you're looking for a tool that can automate feedback in your team, try Officevibe for free! Our science-based questions will get you all the insights you need to prioritize your team's needs.

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3. The affiliative leader

Affiliative leadership happens when a leader feels comfortable building connections throughout the company. The focus is to create a harmonious workplace, one where employees can feel as though they have achieved team chemistry and a level of comfort with one another.

• Key elements: interpersonal relationships, delegation of tasks, trust, and collaboration within the group.

• When should you apply it: if you sense a lack of connection between teams. This style is very important in a remote work context, where we could easily work in silos and find ourselves disconnected from what is going on.

• Importance: Resolving team conflict is a hallmark of the affiliative leader. They support teams and develop those who have been working in silos.

For example: With the rise of the pandemic, we decided to take a stand and go digital-first. However, the leaders of our organization didn't want to lose the sense of connection that made our team culture so great for so long. By using Officevibe to collect feedback and by working together, our leaders rose to the occasion. With the insights they received, they developed a full plan to keep our teams well and connected.

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How to become an affiliative leader

• Build a culture of recognition. When employees feel valued, they are more likely to contribute and build meaningful connections.
• Facilitate employee bonding. Host regular team-building activities that highlight individuals' strengths and communication styles.
• Be open about difficult conversations. Make sure that you provide a supportive and safe environment to promote vulnerability within the team.
• Moderate conversations and encourage transparency and kindness as a baseline.

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4. The democratic leader

In democratic leadership, the manager knows how to collaboratively implement inclusive next steps and focuses on building healthy progress for everyone, at all levels.

• Key elements: a strong sense of collaboration, problem-solving, process management and implementation.

• When should you apply it: This approach is helpful in situations where everyone's input is required to support decisions and strategic planning that will affect the whole team.

• Importance: Collective intelligence promotes diverse solutions. This leadership style can help your team work together towards common goals, and find efficient ways to do so.

For example: Officevibe has grown really quickly over the years. Without our managers actively working on implementing structures and processes that make sense to our team dynamics, we wouldn't be able to keep with the pace of work. Managers make sure that everyone has access to the teams and tooling they need to do their job.

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How to become a democratic leader

• Trust your employees are there to support each other as well as yourself. You hired smart people who are capable of big things, empower them.
• Be clear with your communication style and expectations.
• Identify clear objectives and provide a strong foundation of ideas for the team to brainstorm upon.
• Use a pulse survey tool to observe data-driven results that can help drive decisions.
• Consider each idea equally and be clear on why or why not it is being considered in your next steps.

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5. The pacesetting leader

A pacesetting leader focuses on concrete goals that are set for their team. Pacesetting leaders have high expectations of the team and are fast-paced in their demands. They should balance their high-intensity leadership with a strong recognition plan.

• Key elements: decision-making, clarity of expectations, critical-thinking, a sense of volatility, recognition practices and recognition as part of the team's culture.

• When should you apply it: this style is most effective with short-term goals. It's wise to first address if this level of pressure is conducive to the success of your team.

• Importance: You get to help your team grow fast and see the value they bring. They will feel motivated to keep up with the team.

For example: If there is something we have learned first hand, it's that business as usual never goes as usual. Things can change overnight. New direction and mandates need to be quickly implemented. It is during times of change that we need pacesetting leaders to rise up and lead the way while trusting their teams to perform.

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How to become a pacesetting leader

• Explain that this is a temporary measure and be clear about why this is being adopted. 
• Give visibility around timelines and let them know that this won’t last forever. 
• Share results. Underline what had a positive impact and how they contributed.
• Recognize your team for their efforts. It’s equally important to recognize individuals and the collective team.

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6. The commanding leader

Simply put, this leadership behavior promotes a fear based mentality.

This approach can come across as harsh and typically leaves a negative footprint on a company's culture. To say it bluntly, those who lead with fear are regarded as ineffective. 

It's generally recommended to avoid using this style altogether unless it is in a state of emergency when you need to quickly make decisions, even if they are unpopular.

If you feel like you have been leading with his style, we recommend:

• Instead of demanding and ordering your team around, try inspiring them, leading with vulnerability, empathy and collaboration.
• Instead of micro-managing your team, create a safe space for effective 1-on-1 conversations.
• Instead of focusing on weaknesses and objectives that were not met, try focusing on strengths, potential, growth and progress.

Finding a different leadership style that suits your team will encourage a well rounded and productive team. Below are some key takeaways that will allow you to make your mark as a great leader to bring about transformational impact.

Key takeaways about leadership styles

• Fluctuate between different leadership styles. Effective leaders find the most relevant way to manage their team. Notice that each style has a way of impacting your team differently.
• A good leader knows when to ask for help. The weight of the world doesn't have to fall on your shoulders, your team is there to support you, too.
• A clear mark of an effective and great leader is that they inspire others to be great: give your team the space to thrive and grow.
• Continuous learning is a part of the journey. Building your own emotional intelligence will only further develop your skills in addition to those of the people who look to you for leadership.
• The best approach to understanding the need of applying different styles falls on the concept of "servant leadership". Your leadership style should have the intent to help and support. As long as you keep that mentality, you will do great things for your team.

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Officevibe empowers managers to build productive teams who enjoy showing up to work. If you're not sure where to start, our pulse surveys help clarify the needs of your team so you can build an effective, customized experience. Try it for free!

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Julie Jeannotte is our internal Employee Engagement Expert and Senior Researcher at Officevibe.

It’s been a whole year. Doesn’t one side of you feel like it’s been forever, and the other that time has just flown by?

Spring is finally here, the sun is out and the mild weather feels really good for the soul.

You could call it perfect timing; all of the conditions are there for us to take a good look at our work-life balance and how it’s evolved over the last year, and to take on some positive new habits.

A quick look back on the last year...

The pandemic has changed our lives in many ways, one of them being that many of us are working from home, or, if we change the perspective a little — now full-time living at work.

In this new era of work, it has become increasingly difficult for people to disconnect, hindering work-life balance.

And when balance is off, not only are our lives out of sync but performing individually and within a team becomes increasingly difficult.

In this new life context we’re in, it’s not surprising that people are becoming more susceptible to burnout and mental health issues.

In fact, the statistics have gotten so alarming that we simply can’t ignore it any longer.

The effects of the pandemic on our well-being

According to Officevibe’s Pulse Survey data, today:

• 47% of employees report that they feel overwhelmed at work.
• 35% of employees say that their organization does not provide the right support they need to deal with work-related stress.
• 39% of employees report negative feelings about their work-related stress.
• At least 15% of employees feel like their direct managers do not care about their well-being.
• At least 23% of employees feel like their organization doesn’t take enough action to care for their well-being.

This clearly shows that stress is an issue, and that the need to support employees in this hectic time is of the upmost importance in preventing burnout and supporting mental health.

Recent research from Harvard Business Review gathered feedback from over 1,500 respondents. People surveyed in 46 countries, from various industries, roles, and seniority levels show similar patterns. With their data, they were able to conclude that burnout is a global problem.

Statistics from HBR's study on work-life balance:

• 89% of respondents said their work-life balance was getting worse.
• 85% said their well-being had declined.
• 56% said their job demands had increased.
• 62% of the people who were struggling to manage their workloads had experienced burnout “often” or “extremely often” in the previous three months.
• 57% of employees felt that the pandemic had a “large effect on” or “completely dominated” their work.
• 55% of all respondents didn’t feel that they had been able to balance their home and work life — with 53% specifically citing homeschooling.
• 25% felt unable to maintain a strong connection with family, 39% with colleagues, and 50% with friends.
• Only 21% rated their well-being as “good,” and a mere 2% rated it as “excellent.”

In speaking with managers on a regular basis and consuming the latest industry research, it’s clear to us that if there’s a role that is prone to having a dysfunctional work-life balance, it’s managers.

Not only do they have their own well-being to take care of, they also need to continuously check in on their team members. They set the conditions for positive life habits in and around work.

We know that that’s not an easy task: each person has their unique needs and personal reality. Managing all of this on top of your own life can get completely overwhelming.

That being said, it’s not too late to act, even in small steps, toward re-balancing our lives, recovering from last year’s unpleasant realities, and supporting each other in these rocky times. So, let’s start with you.

How can you improve your own work-life balance as a manager?

You know how when they go over the security rules on airplane and ask that you always put on your own mask first before helping others? Well, we believe the same applies with work-life balance and well-being.

After all, how can you have the energy to help others if you’re not in a good place yourself? What’s more, part of your job is to be aware of any changes in your team members’ behaviors and to help them find strategies towards a healthier balance.

You can’t do that if you’re absorbed in a whirlwind of emotions and challenges.

1. Be empathetic…with yourself

In the interviews we’ve done and data we’ve gathered from our research, one of the top skills employees appreciate from the manager is empathy. But how can you offer empathy to your team if you can’t even be in tune with your own emotions?

Psychologist Daniel Goleman breaks down emotional intelligence in five parts, the first of which is self-awareness.

This refers to our ability to recognize and understand our moods and emotions and how they affect others. Developing self-awareness is useful to continuously monitor your emotional state at work (and at home).

In action

At the beginning and end of every workday, take 5 minutes to check in with yourself before diving into your work tasks. Ask yourself some of the following questions and take a moment to reflect on your answers.

• How do I feel as I begin this new day/end this workday?
• What has brought on this feeling?
• What seems to be the cause?
• Have I been feeling this way for some time now?

Keeping a journal of these moments and your answers can also help you gain perspective and take action if an emotional state seems to be recurring.

2. Set your non-negotiables for work-life balance (and communicate them to your team)

Let’s face it: in these times that it’s more important than ever to lead by example, and that means understanding your needs and setting clear boundaries to protect them. That’s why taking the time to list your non-negotiables, as I like to call them, is very important.

Some examples of non-negotiables are:

• How do you want to go about your work week and what’s needed for you to have a healthy work-life balance?
• Is there a schedule or systematic breaks in the day you need to stick to to care for yourself and/or others?
• Are there times that you need to be available for your team, or for your family?
• Do you need moments to dedicate to disconnecting and perhaps getting in a quick walk or workout?

We all have different needs and constraints. Take the time to list them, re-arrange your work calendar to fit these in and most importantly, communicate them to your team so they know what to expect.

Not only will doing this prevent you from overworking yourself in an attempt to support your team AND get your work done, but it sets a great example for your team members.

Your team will understand that well-being and self-care are important and that work-life balance is valued within your team and organization.

3. Make time for relationships (at work and at home)

Of the many people I’ve asked what they miss most about the pre-pandemic era, 99% of the answers I got had something to do with relationships and connections with people.

Yes, Zoom is there to replace our traditional in-person social hours and informal chats, but as a colleague of mine put it, many of us feel all “Zoomed out” by the end of a long day of meetings.

Powerful data: Officevibe's 2020 remote work survey data showed that at least 29% of employees do not feel comfortable with the isolation of remote work and 27% felt like they didn’t have a healthy work-life balance.

Let’s not condemn virtual meetings; they’re a great medium to chat and still feel like you’re “with” people. That being said, in my personal experience, I’ve reconnected with the joy of just talking on the phone. I haven't called my Dad more times “just to chat” in decades!

I’ve also observed that one of the effects of remote work is that we now need to be very intentional in making time in the work week to just chit-chat with our colleagues, otherwise it just doesn’t happen anymore.

Too often, meetings quickly turn into work talk over anything else. We don’t think about making time to re-create informal conversations that used to happen in the office.

When we noticed this trend on our team, we decided that we would adapt our daily meetings to the following:

• Monday, Wednesday and Friday would be about work, checking on tasks, asking for help, etc.
• Tuesday and Thursday would just be about checking in on each other, talking about all or nothing, just connecting as human beings.

So far, our experiment has been working out great! We also devote a few hours every other Friday to play some games for some fun team building.

A resource: We discovered this super fun (and free) game to unleash our creativity and have a good laugh as a team: https://garticphone.com

How can you help improve your team members' work-life balance?

No magic tricks here: everything we covered above applies to your team as well! This said, let’s zoom in on what you, as their manager, can do to help your team maintain a healthy work-life balance on your team.

1. Set the conditions for work-life balance

Managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement scores across business units, Gallup estimates. 

Why?

Simply because in the eyes of their team members, managers represent the organization.

Managers influence how team members feel about and use various organizational policies around work-life balance such as flex time, time off or resources. Employees follow their manager's lead in these areas, and attitudes make all the difference.

Not only that, managers who have expectations that don’t align with the personal goals and needs of their team can have a detrimental impact on their work-life balance and employee engagement.

Pro tip: Run a workshop with your team members to discuss everyone’s needs and reality. Then, use the outcomes to come up with team principles. Agree on core meeting hours, how to use Slack statuses, time to respond, using vacation time, etc.

2. Listen to what employees say (and don't say)

Many managers have reported just how hard they find it to detect their team’s mood or read the non-verbal cues over virtual connections.

That’s why it’s important to be aware of what your team members are telling you (or at times, not telling you). It’s precisely in these times that the manager’s best tool — one-on-one meetings — need to be leveraged to yield quality conversations.

One-on-ones are a time to balance the professional and the personal and to establish a trust rapport with each of your team members.

Prep one-on-ones in record time! Officevibe’s 1-on-1 software helps you plan great 1-on-1s fast.

But how do you know if an employee is showing signs of struggle? Psychologist Karine St-Jean shares what to be on the lookout for:

1. Lack of or too much sleep
2. Mood swings
3. Lethargy
4. Absence of motivation
5. Poor decision making
6. Difficulty focusing or being productive
7. Less involvement in projects
8. Social disconnection

Pro tip 1: Ask questions in one-on-ones that will help you assess the above signs. And when they answer, listen for real. Be curious. Also, remember to build trust by sharing how you’re doing and dealing with the struggles yourself.

Pro tip 2: Remember to always dig deeper. The next time people say they’re fine, ask again, “Are you really fine? It’s OK if you’re not. I’m here if you need to talk.”

Make sure your team as access — or knows how to obtain access — to professional help if needed. If you aren’t sure, get all the information from your HR team and go over it with your team.

Also, always be sure that there’s a forum to discuss mental health for your team members.

Creating a culture of psychological safety is no small task, we know. If your individual relationships don’t yet allow you to be the one your team confides in, be sure they have a colleague, friend or professional to turn to and continuously reiterate your support.

3. Keep an eye on engagement with stay interviews

Employee engagement has been a steady metric without sharp ups and downs since Gallup began tracking it in 2000 — with the exception of 2020.

This past year, engagement levels have fluctuated more than ever before. This clearly points out the importance of continuously measuring employee engagement within your team, and most importantly, to open discussions around the data with your team members.

Previous Gallup research has shown that employee engagement is very changeable inside organizations when leaders focus on the right practices. My tip to discuss engagement with your team members? Stay interviews!

A stay interview is a discussion between a manager and an employee that's designed to learn what keeps employees working for an organization and what aspects need improvement.

They’re perfect to understand what drives each member of your team and how you can foster high engagement — because yes, engagement drivers vary in intensity and importance for each person.

Exit interviews are relatively common, but stay interviews are less used. While they can glean essential information, exit interviews also come too late to retain valuable employees.

A stay interview is preferable because you ask current employees why they continue to work for your organization. At the exit interview, it’s too late to identify and solve the problems for the exiting employee! Here are examples of a few stay interview questions to help you get started :

My personal template for stay interviews:

• What do you look forward to when you come to work every day?
• What do you like least about working here?
• If you could change something about your job, what would it be? Describe to me your ideal role.
• What might tempt you to leave our organization?
• What are you passionate about in life and at work?
• Are there other career opportunities or roles are you interested in pursuing?
• On a scale from 0-10, how much do you trust our leaders?
• What's your advice on how we can improve as an organization?

Some closing thoughts

Rarely is our resilience put to the test as much as it has over the past year. We’ve seen our “normal” life be turned upside down and have needed to cope, and help others cope, with a wide range of emotions. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget what’s matters most: our well-being, mental and physical health, and our relationships.

So let's remember to be kind to ourselves and to others, and to continuously check-in on our needs and balance.

Here’s an interesting question for anyone reading this: do people respect you because they have to? Or because you’ve truly earned it?

Some leaders think that they automatically deserve respect because of their title or position of authority, but that’s just not true.

In fact, you’re much more likely not to be respected if you have an attitude like that.

Respect is earned over time, and takes an incredible amount of work.

Overview on how to get more respect as a manager:

• Find ways for your employees to grow
• Learn to appreciate your employees
• Learn to handle conflict
• Be consistent
• Be truthfull
• learn to respect yourself
• Train your self-awareness
• Communicate Frequently
• Be Authentic
• Be vulnerable

Being mindful of all these things to earn respect, managing a team, and keeping up with your own workload can easily become overwhelming.

But being overwhelmed isn’t an excuse to be a mean person.

Many managers think leading with fear will get them respect, and maybe that worked in the past, but that won’t work anymore.

Leading with fear is the biggest mistake you can make, because it does the complete opposite of what you’re trying to do.

• Fear holds employees back from speaking up
• Fear disengages employees
• Fear kills creativity
• Fear covers up a leader’s insecurities
• Fear is focused on controlling instead of including

Employees these days are looking for leaders that are transparent, fair, understanding, empathetic, and mindful of them.

Do you take your title and authority for granted? Here’s a pro-tip: you should stop that right away.

Instead, you need to put yourself on the same level as the other members of your team.

Employees want to see you putting in the same amount of time and energy as them. They want to see you play your part in moving the organization forward.

The best leaders are the ones that build their emotional intelligence

I mention emotional intelligence so many times on this blog because I believe in its power so much.

The secret to earning the respect of your employees is to pay close attention to them.

You need to be constantly making sure they’re taken care of and that they have the resources they need to do good work.

The best way to be more focused on employees and pay more attention to them is to build up your emotional intelligence.

Free Email Course: Become a better leader in 11 days and be the type of leader that employees admire and respect.

Why employees don’t respect you

Before we look at ways to earn respect of your employees, let’s look at a few of the reasons why employees don’t respect you.

Are you guilty of any of these?

If yes, then you need to work hard to change your mindset to stop doing these things.

1. You don’t let employees grow

You can’t micromanage employees or limit their creativity. You need to be letting employees use all of their strengths at work.

You’re just limiting your company’s success and limiting the growth of your employees.

This can get incredibly frustrating for employees and they’ll easily lose respect for you if you constantly limit them.

2. You don’t appreciate employees

One of the easiest ways to get respect is by showing respect and appreciation for the work your employees do.

One of the fastest ways to lose respect from employees is to not show them any appreciation and hardly ever give them praise.

The trick is to create a culture of recognition so that even if you’re not around, employees are still getting the praise that they deserve.

3. You don’t handle conflict well

Respect isn’t all about being nice. Sometimes, conflict will come up and you'll be respected by how you handle it.

You don’t have to be mean, but if you handle it quickly and are straightforward, employees will respect you.

Employees will lose respect for you quickly if you avoid conflict or pick favorites and avoid conflict with some people but handle conflict with others.

Avoiding conflict is weak, and will make employees lose respect for you quickly.

4. You’re not consistent

Do you say one thing one day and then the next day, do something else? That’s a very easy way to lose respect from employees.

Do you consistently miss deadlines? Are you consistently late for meetings or absent from certain meetings? I get that leaders are busy, but if you say you’re going to do something, commit to doing it.

5. You’ve lied

This is literally the quickest way to lose respect from your employees.

I can’t think of anything more insulting to an employee than if they find out you’ve lied to them.

Even if it was unintentional, I think if you get caught in a lie, you’re going to have a very tough time earning back that respect.

6. You don’t care about them as people

Without getting too personal, you should be showing some interest in an employee’s personal life.

If it’s obvious that you don’t care about their issues and you only want them to be working hard for you, there’s no way that they can respect you.

How to get more respect as a manager

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, 54% of employees feel like they don’t regularly get respect from their managers.

Remember that respect is earned over time with a lot of hard work, but here are a few tips you can use to get more respect as a manager.

1. Respect yourself

Before you can think of earning respect from others, you need to respect yourself.

Exercise, eat well, work hard, set high goals for yourself, etc. Make sure you take care of yourself.

You need to respect yourself before others can begin respecting you.

2. Become self-aware

Self-awareness is likely the most important item on this list.

According to one study, self-awareness leads to more respect and increased financial results in a company.

The study explains that there are two reasons why self-awareness is so important for earning respect:

1. They’re aware of their weaknesses
2. They’re more likely to delegate those weaknesses to other employees

These leaders understand what they’re good at, and focus on that, while empowering others to help them with their weaknesses.

3. Communicate frequently

Employees want frequent communication with you. They’ll respect you if you’re constantly touching base with them and giving them frequent feedback.

Having consistent one-on-ones will help you set a good pace for frequent communication with your team.

4. Read a lot

Reading a lot will help you understand a lot of the things that your employees are working on or dealing with.

If you can help them with advice or teach them something you learned, your employees will respect that knowledge.

The best leaders read a lot. Reading has incredible effects on how you lead that will ultimately lead to more respect from your team.

5. Be vulnerable

There is a false thought among many leaders that being vulnerable will make you look weak, but it’s the complete opposite.

Being vulnerable, and admitting to mistakes will make you seem more open and transparent, which is exactly what employees want.

Brené Brown, whose TED talk about vulnerability went viral has another talk that perfectly explains why this myth is simply that.

6. Be authentic

Always be authentic with your team.

People can tell when you’re not being authentic, and that can easily lose you respect, so it’s better if you’re just authentic and truthful.

Be transparent with your team. Transparency breeds trust, and trust leads to respect.

Free Email Course: Become a better leader in 11 days and be the type of leader that employees admire and respect.

How do you earn respect from employees?

Job vs career are technically the same thing; it's a question of semantics. The actual difference is the mindset. How seriously do you take what you do? Are you passionate about it? Are you coasting through your days or soaking up learnings?

To be a successful manager, you can't consider it a mere 9-5 "job".  The best managers are in it for the whole spectrum of experiences and life education that comes along with the job.

To lead performing teams you need to be passionate about what you do. Mostly, you need to be passionate about people.

Here’s a handy infographic that shows you the difference between a job and a career.

Management means being it for the long term

Ask yourself this question: are you in it for the short term? Or the long term? If you’re in it for the short term, it’s hard to get fully motivated to do great work, or inspire it from others. Your team needs a leader that has a long-term vision for everyone's growth and career goals.

If you’re thinking short-term, it’s possible that you’ll do things that might not be in the best interest of other employees, customers, or shareholders. On the flip side, if you’re in it for the long term, your whole thinking changes.

When your team's professional success and personal growth are your priorities, management becomes more than a job. And this is when you'll thrive.

Remember, career development takes time

Professional development and personal growth are among the most important elements of employee engagement. This goes for both you and your team.

Setting career goals for yourself and your team can make the difference between engaged and disengaged employees.

Hopping from job to job makes it harder to get that professional career path going. Growth takes time, relationship-building, self-reflection, difficult discussions, and a lot of learnings. You have to be invested for yourself, but more so for the sake of your team. The success of your team is, after all, your success too.

Once an employee reaches their peak and plateaus, they can become disengaged and demotivated. Conceptualizing management a career focused on people development rather than a job or a title is what will make all the difference in how you perform.

Careers prioritize work experience over pay  

One key difference between the mindset of having a job vs career is that jobs give you paychecks, whereas careers give you work experience. You might even consider it a form of life education.

When management becomes a career, your goals are completely different. Instead of focusing on your next paycheck, you’ll be focusing on building long-term relationships with some key mentors and coaching employees to reach beyond their potential.

Compensation becomes an afterthought when you’re working in a place that you love. And the truth is, there are other forms of rewards that are just as rewarding as pay.  Intrinsic rewards such as seeing your team blossom under your leadership is extremely fulfilling.

And, if a bigger pay check is what you are after, nurturing a career and your development in the company will help you get there faster.

Managers need an "all in" mindset

When you’re working at a job you don’t care much about you might be more inclined to do the minimum rather than being all in. Management is an all in sort of career. Not only are you dealing with the business objectives which requires a focused and passionate mindset, but you're also dealing with employees and their career advancement. This is not something to take lightly.

When you have a career that you love, you’re willing to go above and beyond your normal duty. When you’re engaged, you don’t mind doing some extra work, in fact, you don’t even notice it. You’re happy to do it because you genuinely want your team and company to succeed.

It’s tough to get motivated and feel like you should go above and beyond if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing. And since managers lead by example, if you want your team to be engaged, you need to be engaged as well.

Where there's purpose, even the tough days are worth it

Of course, even in a career that you absolutely love, there will be some bad days. But for the most part, you'll leave work with a sense of purpose. Loving the essence of what you do and being connected to the "why" you do it will make your day-to-day more meaningful.  

Things can get tough as a manager, there is no beating around that bush. Any "job" that requires an emotional investment means there might be more emotional moments.

It might mean difficult conversations with employees, tough feedback from your own boss, or  managing conflict on your team. When you have the mindset of career over job, these tough moments become be perceived as learnings and triggers for growth.

Careers are energizing

When you love what you do and who you work with, you’re eager to hit the ground running. Even on a Monday. That doesn't mean you always need to be "excited to work" every day,  but it means that the general idea of your day-to-day is more energizing rather than draining.

Knowing you get to lead a team, coach people to reach their potential, and develop your soft skills might be hard work, but it's worth it. This is a career mindset. One that sees the bigger picture of the experience rather than the negatives of the nitty-gritty.

A career is not just a means to an end

A career is an opportunity to develop. Management skills are transferable skills, and there is great value in this. One of the most amazing things about developing as a manager is that you get to grow in two areas:

• Hard skills, such as prioritization, setting expectations, strategy
• Soft skills such as emotional regulation, self-awareness, communication

Jobs on the other hand feel more like a means to an end. And those with a "job" mindset often don't stick around in one place for too long.

When you’re devoted to managing a team, you spend that time and energy on building your reputation, making connections, and working your way up the ladder. But when you work for a paycheck alone, you aren't getting a well-rounded sense of fulfillment.

Careers bring a sense of value alignment

When someone’s personal values align with the company’s values, that is the definition of culture fit.

When you’re working at a job you’re not interested in, it’s not necessarily that you won’t agree with the values, you just likely won’t care if they align with yours.

When your values align closely with your organization's, you’ll have a stronger emotional attachment to the brand, making you more likely to be engaged and to give that discretionary effort.

Career vs job is no longer a question you need to ask yourself because your work becomes fun and enjoyable.

Time flies when you're having fun

When you’re working at a job that you don’t like, you may spend most of your day looking at the clock, counting down the time until you can go home.

It’s the complete opposite if you’re working in an organization that you love with a group of people that energize you. When you spend time doing work that you truly enjoy, you can find enough time in a day to get things done. You make it work, for you and your team.

The difference between a job and a career may come down to this simple question - are you having fun at work?

A career is a journey

Jobs answer your needs for the here and now. Careers set you on a career journey for the future. As a manager, you get to do this for your team too. You get to guide them on a path that will lead to their growth by helping them overcome challenges.

Do you have a long-term goal or career path set out? Considering your job as a career in the making is what will inevitably help you achieve it. And,  if you're a manager, you have the chance to help others along the way.

We’ve all read articles on the “Top 10 Ways” to improve as a manager or the “5 Must Dos” to be a better leader, but we want to try something different this time.

We’re going to share a difficult experience that we had on our real life team, and the medley of solutions we used to overcome it. It worked for us, and we hope you find something in our method that works for you and your team, too.

Vulnerability is key, right? And we feel that as an organization steadfast on putting people at the center of things, it’s our responsibility to share our learnings with you. And oh, there are many.

So, what happened?

Well, what happens on every team?

Human conflict.

Conflict between colleagues, new employees with new ways of working, fast-paced growth, communication woes, power struggles—the whole shabang—all topped with the bitter-sweet cherry of human complexity.

As a manager, you probably already know that this conflict, the infamous “storming phase,” is an inevitability. It is not a sign that you’re failing as a manager; on the contrary, it’s a normal part of team performance and a consequential time for personal growth and development.

This is us

Team: The Marketing Team at Officevibe
Marketing Director: Marie-Christine Côté (MC)
Languages: 2 (English and French)
Number of Employees: We grew from 5 to 15 employees (& counting) in 1 year

First… The four stages of team development

Take a minute to understand what the phases of development, coined by Dr. Bruce Tuckman, actually look like and reflect on where you think your team is currently at.

Forming

• A team is built, people are getting to know their roles and colleagues
• Team members are polite and focused on their individual tasks

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⭐ Proactive Tip: Managers should facilitate relationship building and ensure roles, responsibilities, and expectations are clear during this stage<

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Storming

• People get more comfortable and start pushing boundaries
• Symptoms like competition and lack of trust lead to negative attitudes and resistance to working together

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⭐ These factors could result in conflict. Don’t worry, it’s normal, and if we pushed through it, you can, too!

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Norming

• Differences begin to resolve with the right tools and clarity, and team members learn to work together and appreciate one another’s strengths
• Communication improves, feedback can be given and challenges can be made safely and without animosity

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⭐ Things are running pretty smoothly—but there’s always potential to go from good to great.

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Performing

• Strategies are in place for resolving conflict, and there’s a sense of safety, loyalty and support on the team
• People work more autonomously with clarity of roles, a shared vision, and shared goals

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⭐ This is where you want to be; your workplace utopia

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T’was a dark & storming month for our high-performing team

The tension on our team was palpable; you could cut it clean with a bread knife. From the outside, everything seemed normal; we all showed up to work, went through the motions, attended our meetings. But, if you looked closely enough you could see—feel—that something wasn’t quite right.

One employee recounts being in the eye of the storm: “We were no longer in sync. Our team was growing quickly and we experienced the typical growing pains that come with that reality. Swim lanes were blurred, processes were challenged and accountability was unclear. Lack of clarity and communication resulted in frustration, but the frank conversations needed to fix this weren’t being had. It was just too uncomfortable.”

The tangible giveaway was that nothing was being delivered.

Our team effectiveness was in the gutter. We were like dogs chasing their tails; we discussed and challenged ideas in circles, but never found the confidence as a team to make any decisions. Who had the final say anyway? No one was entirely sure at this point, and that was a big problem.

Without trust at the base of things, we tend to process and perceive feedback and questions with a much more skeptical lens; one without positive intent.

We were intelligent individuals working toward the same goals and objectives (often arguing the same points), but emotions can act as blinders to the facts.

Our manager weathers the storm: “It wasn’t easy…”

Here, we ask our manager, MC, how she felt during this time, what she noticed on our team, and how she planned to help us fix it.

How did you know that your team was in the storming phase?

The team’s non-verbal communication was terrible, and there was a lot of tension in meetings, which prevented things from moving forward.

Then I heard about conflicts from individual employees, so I felt like there was a lot on my shoulders, which I knew was not sustainable. If we want to build leaderful teams* (where leadership is shared), people need to be able to talk to each other.

*Leaderful Teams are teams that don’t rely solely on the manager for leadership and direction, and don’t need to. On a leaderful team, everyone takes collective and individual ownership for overcoming challenges, implementing solutions, and achieving goals.

Thankfully, I also had hints in the weekly Officevibe feedback, so I knew how my team was really feeling. And our engagement metric for “Relationship with Peers” was low, which is one of the biggest triggers you can have. The team didn’t feel good with each other. On the other hand, the “Relationship with Manager” metric was high, which is good because people felt they could talk to me. But a manager should never be a bottleneck, they should be an enabler.

Learn more about how to track these metrics on your team using Officevibe here

Here you can see the drop in our “Relationship with Peers” metric, and the steady incline since then. Notice the similarity between this graph and the forming, storming, norming, and performing one?

Why do you think the relationship between peers is so important?

That’s the base…

From a business perspective, if you’re spending 80% of your capacity trying to understand people and how to properly interact with your peers, you only have 20% left for creativity. You have to create together, but if you can’t talk to one another openly, or listen to each other properly, then you’ll never bring ideas to the table.

From a personal perspective, we come to work to develop ourselves, exchange with people, and be a part of something bigger than us. If you’re not getting along with colleagues, it isn’t fun coming to work, and it definitely isn’t fun working for a team when nothing is being delivered. Ultimately, people want to have an impact.

How did all this affect you as a manager? As a person?

It wasn’t easy. I couldn’t sleep at night; it was a really stressful feeling that the team wasn’t engaged. We had very aggressive objectives, which is ok, but it’s so hard when the trouble is human problems; it’s difficult to have the conversations that need to be had.

I came to work early, read up on emotional intelligence, team performance, spoke to coaches within the organization, and my own manager, who prompted some good reflection.

My biggest fear was that my team would become cynical and that my manager would doubt me. I felt unequipped as this was something I hadn’t necessarily lived yet as a first-time manager. But I was learning along the way.

Where did you start to fix things?

My coach gave me the four stages of team performance to read, so I quickly realized that our team couldn’t perform like an all-star team if we didn’t go through all the four stages. It reassured me that it was normal for us to be here, and when I shared this with the team, it reassured them as well.

Then I worked with a few members of the team to plan an offsite where we could tackle the issues we were having, together.

Action time! The Meeting That Saved Our Team

The role of manager is tricky because there’s only so much they can actually do for their employees. What they can do is create an atmosphere that is enabling, safe and motivating for their employees to want to put in the work to solve it on their own.

Our manager nailed it. Below are the steps we took to exit the storming phase.

1. Get out of the office

We planned a full-day offsite. It was time to get away from the office, out of the bubble. Taking a proverbial step back while also stepping outside of the space of conflict and tension. Neutral territory, if you will.

2. Build empathy and inclusion

On a timeline, we all started by sharing the year we were born, revealing the variation in ages we have on the team. Then we began to build up empathy. We were each asked to add three impactful life moments to the timeline.

The stories we heard were real and raw, some of personal experiences and losses, others that were professional in nature. We all became a little more enlightened about our colleagues that day.

3. Educate and reflect

Next, we read a portion from the book The Loyalist Team to learn about the different team types. By reading the case studies and scenarios presented in the book, we were able to reflect on the current state of our own team, and ourselves as contributors.

It gave us a good benchmark as to where we were at—and really shed light on the team that we weren’t.

4. Take a team assessment

If we weren’t yet a Loyalist team, what were we? To find out, we each took the assessment assigned by the book. The insights and introspection from this exercise really helped us have a more holistic view of where we were at, and kick off something we had all been avoiding for way too long: a real conversation.

5. Talk about it

We went around the table and shared our insights, which eased us in to what eventually became an open and honest discussion. Being able to reference the book instead of ourselves made it easier for people to talk about our situation.

6. Create team norms

Just like most organizations have a culture fueled by a set of values, every team likewise has its own subculture. This means that teams need to create their own governing set of values unique to them.

These norms, or “Team Principles,” are not for the manager to dictate, they’re for the team to build as a unit, so they can see themselves represented in them, creating a sense of shared accountability.

Example: 🐘 Call out the elephant in the room — Communicating challenges, issues and conflicts to one another is for the betterment of the team. Call out what’s causing discomfort, then and there.

The calm after the storm

Finally, we started to call out problems and discomfort on the spot instead of letting issues fester. The “Call out the elephant in the room” principle made it our shared responsibility to confront conflict head on. And so we did.

Working with this courage and transparency brought such great results it became addictive and palpable in the best way. Other teams in the company picked up on our vibe, and began to create their own principles.

Just like that, our team conflict became a success story.

How to build team principles: a manager’s guide

1. Give everyone time individually (to avoid groupthink) to reflect on what they feel the most important team norms should be.
2. One by one, let everyone share what principles they believe should be implemented, and why.
3. Create post-it clusters of recurring ideas to surface the pain points.
4. Together, choose and agree on the principles that everyone feels best fit the current landscape of the team.
5. Have a subgroup put them together in the team’s voice and tone with more descriptive action points. For example: Embrace the mindset of feedback as a conversation, not a confrontation.
6. Finally, have them printed and hung up as a visual reminder.
7. Explain the team principles at the onboarding stage for new employees.
8. After a few months, check in with the team on whether they are still using the principles or if it’s time to revisit them. You can use a custom poll for individual feedback with Officevibe, or hold a group meeting.
9. Repeat! As the team changes and the storm settles on the horizon, do the process again.

Share your story!

We’re all in this together. If you would like to share your team story, please reach out at content@officevibe.com.

A previous version of this page was published on April 18, 2017.

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Feedback is a gift. At least, that’s what many employees say, but is that how they really feel? 

Some employees may not feel comfortable being explicitly transparent with their feedback for fear of retaliation or being labeled challenging to work with.

This is where anonymous employee feedback comes in.

Not only does anonymity increase transparency, it also highlights workplace challenges and initiates more effective two-way conversations. With anonymous feedback, managers can understand more clearly what they need to do to better support their teams.

Let’s take a closer look at the best methods and tools that facilitate anonymous feedback and how they can foster trust and engagement in the workplace.

Benefits of anonymous employee feedback

Employee feedback is essential to the functioning of the modern workplace. While some employees may be more at ease expressing themselves directly to their managers or peers, others may feel less inclined to share their thoughts if their names are attached.

Anonymous feedback allows people to share new ideas or convey anxieties in a judgment-free zone and builds trust between team members.

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Positive effects of anonymous feedback:

• Anonymous feedback encourages employees to bring up tough topics in a safe environment.
• Asking for feedback lets your team know that you care about their happiness.
• Managers can discover issues they didn’t know about, and act to resolve them before they lead to conflict, failure, or turnover.

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1. Creates a safe space for honest feedback

Healthy teams have psychological safety at their core; they champion employee well-being and cultivate an environment of trust and confidence that allow team members to succeed.

Employees may feel more inclined to share their concerns openly when offered the opportunity to collect anonymous feedback. This method allows managers to zero in on some of the issues that may have otherwise gone unnoticed and nudges them in the right direction on how to fix them.

Employees welcome the safety of anonymity because it gives them a chance Employees welcome the safety of anonymity because it gives them a chance to share meaningful information. It gives them agency to express feelings they’d always had but didn’t know how to communicate. The result is greater cohesion within businesses, reduced employee turnover, and better teamwork.

Anonymous feedback encourages trust and connection

2. A feedback process builds trust and authentic connections

Employees want to feel supported by their team and their managers. Encouraging your team to share their thoughts (whether anonymously or not) shows that you value resolving their trepidations and genuinely care for their well-being.

Employees may choose to submit feedback anonymously, but as confidence grows and they see how managers react to feedback, employees may begin to disclose their identity, ultimately building employee-manager trust

3. Collect employee feedback with confidence

Anonymity allows for openness in response and will enable managers to feel confident when asking tough questions.

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There are some types of questions that your team members might feel more comfortable answering anonymously, like:

• Does your team have the resources they need to get their work done on time?
• Are there team dynamics that need to be addressed?
• Is a change required for a healthier dynamic?
• Would this result in productivity and employee engagement?

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3 digital methods for collecting anonymous employee feedback

We’ve gone over the benefits of anonymous feedback, but let’s dive into how you can go about actually collecting this data. 

While traditional methods like a suggestion box in the office may have worked well once upon a time, it no longer serves the increasingly remote modern-day workforce. 

Here are some of the best digital methods for collecting employee feedback:

Feedback software

Feedback apps and software have been gaining popularity thanks to their ease of use and accessibility, especially with hybrid workforces.

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Most tools can be set up with automatic functions that allow you to schedule surveys, questionnaires, polls, or virtual comment boxes, removing most manual legwork from your plate. These platforms will gather your results and generate practical analytics that allows you to store data and track trends over time.

Employee surveys

Anonymous digital surveys allow you to tailor questions for your employees. Managers can ask as many or as few questions as they like and in their preferred format (i.e., yes or no questions, polls, short-answer questions). 

Although helpful for gauging the general sentiment around company culture and collecting feedback, managers may still need to sift through responses and catalog anonymous comments themselves. And unlike many feedback software, the main drawback for most free employee survey platforms is that they aren’t equipped to analyze your collected feedback and provide you with reports to monitor employee happiness and other metrics.

Anonymous email inbox

While you can’t mask your identity through regular email providers, setting up an anonymous inbox allows employees to submit their comments and concerns and preserve their anonymity. A drawback to this method, though, is the manual effort it requires to set up and organize the inbox and collect and analyze comments.

Employees can enable or disable anonymity when sharing feedback.

Best anonymous feedback tools

Several anonymous feedback tools exist on the market today, equipped with different functions and features to serve various needs.

Officevibe - Anonymous feedback and Pulse Survey software

While there are many tools out there that have been designed to collect anonymous feedback in the workplace, Officevibe’s easy-to-use platform is one of the most intuitive and accessible ways for employees to be upfront about their concerns in a non-intimidating setting.

Officevibe’s Pulse Survey tool enables you to collect employee feedback without disrupting the workday flow and allows you to start working on strategies to improve engagement.

Employees can discuss areas of concern, highlight what they enjoy about their jobs, and even celebrate a stand-out coworker with the new Good Vibes feature.

Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is one of the more popular players in the digital feedback game. The platform offers users pre-set templates for topics ranging from customer service to employee satisfaction and includes different subscription levels to meet individual needs.

Free Suggestion Box

Free Suggestion Box is a free website where managers can create a link to a conversation topic and send it out to employees to drop comments or share ideas. It’s a simple way to solicit feedback, but unlike Officevibe or other more intricate platforms, this anonymous feedback box doesn’t allow managers to observe changes over time.

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is another tool that offers users some fun options for submitting feedback, including quizzes and word clouds. The live polling function allows teams to communicate ideas in real-time, but some users have noted that the tool caps the number of participants, making it more challenging to get a clear picture of how employees feel.

Peachy Mondays

Another tool on the market used to collect feedback is the UK-based platform, Peachy Mondays. While the solution offers an array of questions to gather critical feedback using up-to-date research, Peachy Mondays require a minimum of 500 users per company, making it less accessible for a smaller organization.

How to get anonymous employee feedback using Officevibe

Officevibe’s anonymous feedback tool allows employees to share feedback with their manager at any given time easily. It gives your team a simple and safe vehicle to express their voice on the many matters of their day-to-day work.

Collect anonymous feedback with surveys

With Pulse Surveys, employees answer a handful of relevant questions once a week, like “My organization’s values are aligned with values I consider important in life,” or “Is the feedback you get specific?” Thanks to an intuitive algorithm, Pulse Surveys shuffle questions so that employees aren’t asked the same thing too frequently, avoiding survey fatigue.

Officevibe’s anonymous feedback tool also offers the option for feedback to be turned on or off so that the focus remains on what was said rather than who said it. This anonymous reporting ensures that employees can offer their candid feedback without fear of repercussion.

Respond to direct employee feedback

You can even directly respond to anonymous employee feedback in Officevibe! Turn employee feedback messages into a chat to dive into the nitty-gritty of a topic while employees stay anonymous. Employees can enable or disable anonymity when sharing feedback, depending on their comfort level.

The beauty of the anonymity feature is that it helps employees spark conversations that might otherwise be difficult to broach, like discussions related to their work environment, compensation, relationships with managers and other colleagues, etc. Ultimately, it fosters a company culture of inclusion and consistent communication, essential ingredients to a successful team.

One manager shares her experience using Officevibe:

How to implement an anonymous employee feedback process

Once you’ve collected data from your employee feedback surveys, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and address the issues or continue delivering on some of the things your team enjoys.

Analyze employee feedback

After your team has submitted their thoughts using the feedback tool, take a moment to review it. Take note of behavioral patterns. Notice low productivity, stress-strained relationships, or low collaboration.

Survey results are broken down into 10 key engagement metrics, including happiness, personal growth, job satisfaction, and relationship with the manager, to help you target areas that may need improvement. As you collect feedback, it will be helpful to refer back to situations and identify recurring pain points on your team.

Communicate feedback with your team

Spend time crafting the best way to present your findings to your team. According to our data, 82% of employees using Officevibe believe their direct manager cares about their opinion, so it’s important to never let feedback go unanswered.

Thanks to the easy-to-read reports, you can apply what you’ve learned and start making data-driven decisions on strengthening relationships, shifting employee engagement, and build strong productivity. 

One of the most effective ways to enhance employee engagement is implementing a feedback loop where you can engage in genuine two-way discussions with your team.

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Here are some other employee feedback examples you can use to get started today!

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When you allow employees to share their thoughts and nurture their concerns, you create an environment of trust, confidence, and mutual respect. Officevibe’s anonymous employee feedback tool helps managers do this with ease and efficiency.

Anonymous employee feedback FAQ

How do I get anonymous employee feedback?

One of the best ways to gather anonymous employee feedback is through specially-developed tools and platforms like Officevibe. 

Officevibe’s Pulse Surveys allow you to ask your team-specific questions weekly and help managers zero in on areas of improvement.

Is anonymous feedback really anonymous?

Most employee feedback software claim to offer users complete anonymity, but Officevibe users can rest assured that their answers will not be displayed; only aggregated results are presented.

Should employee surveys be anonymous?

Every organization operates on its own wavelength, so different methods will work for different groups. By offering people the opportunity to fill out a survey anonymously, you foster an environment of honest communication that values employee outlook.

Is anonymous feedback effective?

Anonymous feedback allows employees to share ideas in a safe space without fear of repercussions. This open feedback process encourages people to start discussions on important subjects they may not feel comfortable broaching in a public forum.

How do you deal with negative feedback anonymously?

While employees must feel able to voice their opinions freely, it’s important to remember that mutual respect is a key pillar of a solid and productive team. Managers should consider all comments to improve employee satisfaction.

Work looks a lot different than it did a year ago, and many teams have had to navigate change, big and small, in this time. From adjusting work methods, to adapting to shifts in business strategy, and striving to maintain work-life balance, managers have had their work cut out for them. Today, employee accountability in the workplace has become very important for team performance.

To create workplace accountability, managers must set clear expectations – and trust their team to deliver. With more remote work and distributed teams, that element of trust is especially crucial. Yet…

And employees tend to respond similarly to this question as they do to questions about how much they enjoy work, and whether they feel a sense of accomplishment. Set the tone for your team to get everyone feeling that sense of responsibility and motivation.

What is employee accountability in the workplace?

Employee accountability means meeting deadlines, hitting targets, and otherwise getting the job done. And accountable employees manage their workload according to team objectives, proactively seek help when they need it, and take responsibility when they make mistakes.

When teams have a culture of accountability, they prioritize their initiatives to align with business objectives and collaborate effectively together. On top of that, team members face failures together, without pointing fingers, and actively apply their learnings moving forward.

An accountable workforce is made up of driven employees and high-performing teams. You can see workplace accountability in action when people know what they need to accomplish and are empowered to get there independently. In an accountable company culture, mistakes and failures are acknowledged and embraced, contributing to a culture of learning and growth.

Accountable employees have a clear understanding of:

• Their role within their team
• The responsibilities they hold
• The expectations they have to meet

Accountable teams have a common understanding of

• How their work contributes to company goals
• The output they’re responsible for
• The targets they’re striving to achieve

How do you build employee accountability?

If you have underperforming employees, you might be tempted to check in more often and make sure they’re on the right track. But when employees don’t feel trusted or empowered to take charge of their own work, it impacts motivation, employee engagement, and morale. Yet…

When you clearly establish the job that needs to be accomplished, it gives employees the freedom to figure out how they get there on their own. With a little bit of coaching and a healthy amount of trust, you’ll quickly see a boost in personal accountability and ownership.

How to hold employees accountable:

1. Meet with employees individually to clearly outline their roles and responsibilities. Use one on one meeting software to discuss the behaviours, tasks, skills, and output of their role.
2. Once everyone’s roles are clear, set clear, measurable smart goals with your employees so they have something meaningful to work towards.
3. Have regular, structured one-on-ones with employees to monitor their progress, give constructive feedback, and revisit their goals when needed.
4. If you see someone’s productivity dropping, meet with them to discuss it. Approach them with curiosity and ask questions to open up the conversation.

4 strategies to build accountability in the workplace (with examples)

So, how do you build team accountability in the workplace of today? Use the following strategies to create alignment, commitment, and clarity, so everyone is responsible for their part.

1. Get team members familiar with each other’s goals

Once you’ve structured clear roles and responsibilities for each team member, make them accessible to the group. Even better, have your team share their individual goals with each other. The more visibility everyone has, the more your team can leverage their individual strengths and collaborate effectively.

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For example: Host a meeting where everyone can take turns presenting their role, their responsibilities, and how they see themselves developing. Have team members share their individual goals and how they connect with the team’s objectives.

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2. Involve employees in setting team goals

Have a meeting and present your team with the key results they’re accountable for meeting, and any constraints they have in terms of resources, personnel, timing, etc. From there, you can work together with employees to set goals that will help them hit their targets. This will help foster that sense of collective purpose, commitment, and responsibility that supercharges team performance.

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For example: You’ve been given an ambitious target to hit for the next quarter from your boss, and you’re nervous that this will make them feel like they’re set up for failure. First, meet with your team and present the end goal. Then, have a group brainstorm on different ways you can get there. Can you break it into monthly or bi-weekly targets? Or divide your team into sub-squads where each is accountable for a piece of the pie? Encourage them to see this as a challenge (the good kind).

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3. Have your team plan their own initiatives

In the same way that employees want the freedom to determine how they do their work, they also want a say in what they work on. But…

With clear goals and objectives (that they helped set), your team is empowered to determine the actions that will take them there together.

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For example: Say you’re managing a team of web developers, and you have a goal to increase traffic to your website in the next quarter. Meet with your team and discuss different paths that will get you there. Do they want to decrease the site’s loading time? Or collaborate with the design team to improve the user experience? Maybe render it more mobile-friendly? Assess each option based on effort vs. impact, and decide together which one(s) you’ll work on.

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4. Address issues with team engagement

Accountable teams have accountable leaders. Open up lines of communication so that you can keep a real-time pulse on how your employees feel. The better you understand your team’s engagement and pain points, the better you can spot where clarity or accountability is lacking. Turn these into talking points for the whole team, to hold employees accountable and get them involved in implementing solutions.

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For example: Using a software like Officevibe's engagement tool helps you understand your team’s needs and track trends in their engagement. Employees can share anonymous feedback, and you can respond directly in the app to turn it into a two-way conversation. Keep track of employee feedback, team engagement, and 1-on-1 meetings all in one place – any time, from anywhere. All of this helps you be there for your team, no matter how busy you are.

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Accountable employees form high-performing teams

Accountability and high performance go hand-in-hand, and your team relies on your leadership to help them get there. Support your team by setting them up with a clear destination for success, and the tools to forge their own path.

Confidence is such a hard thing to maintain, because it can be crushed at any moment.

Confidence is so important though, because it gives us the strength we need to accomplish almost anything.

How many times have you been held back because of a lack of confidence? I know for me it’s probably in the hundreds.

Consider how lack of confidence could even be affecting your earnings.

Many people struggle with lack of self-confidence and it holds us back. We need to work hard on improving our self-confidence and self-esteem if we want to be the type of leaders that employees look up to.

Researchers are starting to see confidence as a key element of internal well-being and happiness.

Without confidence, we’re unable to achieve flow, the magical feeling when you’re “in the zone.” If you don’t believe in your skills, you’ll never be able to achieve that state of ultimate productivity.

In this TED talk, Athletic Director and head coach of the varsity soccer team at Ryerson University, Dr. Ivan Joseph talks about how self confidence is the number one skill he looks for in athletes. He talks about how important it is in sports and our daily lives.

We often share tips on how to be a better leader, but many of these things are near impossible if you have low self-esteem and low confidence.

It is possible to build more confidence and have a higher self-esteem, but it takes a lot of work. The secret: building better habits.

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Building confidence as a habit

The secret to building anything into your life is to make it a habit.

The same is true for confidence and self-esteem. It’s incredibly difficult though, because we’re naturally inclined to fall back to old comforting habits and the idea of building confidence is new and stressful for most people.

One of the main reasons unconfident people stay unconfident is that they’re comfortable being unconfident. They continually live their lives that way.

So the only way to become more confident is to build it as a habit and become comfortable being confident.

The research has shown that the best way to build a new habit is to start so small it seems ridiculously easy.

Two famous examples of this are flossing one tooth per day and doing just one push-up per day. They both seem so easy, so we can get started quickly, but we naturally want to finish what we start so we often end up doing more.

This is what’s known as the Zeigarnik effect.

Here are a few very simple things you could do to start building more confidence as a mini-habit:

• Say one good thing about yourself first thing in the morning
• Say good morning to one person when you get to work
• Dress well one day a week
• Add one idea/comment at the next team meeting
• Do an easy task first thing in the morning
• When you wake up, smile and tell yourself it’s going to be a great day

One problem, is that we’re notoriously bad at judging our own confidence. We often think we’re much better than we are.

The science of confidence

The research on confidence is truly interesting and shows why it’s such a hard thing to get right.

Fear of failure

It’s normal to be scared of failing, no one likes to fail, but fear of failure is when the idea of failing is so strong that it overpowers the idea of success.

Fear of failure is a tough one to fix, because it’s on an unconscious level and they often can’t handle the idea of the shame that comes with failing.

The best way to overcome this is to start small. Find something so small and insignificant you’d be okay with failing it, and learn to accept that failure.

Imposter syndrome

Imposter Syndrome is feeling like an impostor when you’re not. Like you’re a fraud and the whole world is going to find you out.

Famous people like Oprah, Sheryl Sandberg, Tina Fey and Maya Angelou all admit to feeling like they’re not good enough.

The best way to overcome this is by not being afraid to pat yourself on the back. You don’t want to be arrogant, but it’s important to understand that you had a lot to do with where you are right now. You should be proud of yourself for your accomplishments.

The Optimism Bias

We’re actually naturally inclined to be optimistic.

The Optimism Bias is our tendency to overestimate our likelihood of experiencing good events in our lives and underestimate our likelihood of experiencing bad events.

While I encourage everyone to build up confidence and have a high self-esteem, some reality needs to be taken into account as well. We need a healthy dose of both optimism and precaution to set ourselves up for success.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias where less competent people rate their competence higher than it actually is, while more competent people rate theirs lower.

Like I mentioned earlier, we’re horrible at judging our own skills at something.

This is a tough one to fix, but if you’re more competent, focus on understanding the value you bring to a team or organization.

While you might naturally think you’re worse than you are, you’re bringing a ton of value, and you should be proud of that!

5 Ways to improve your confidence

The secret to making this work is persistence. It’s so easy to just give up after one or two tries if you see no results, but results take time.

Here are a few things you can do to help improve your confidence.

Take care of your personal image

Dress well, shower, shave, etc. Take some time in the morning to make sure you’re looking your best.

It might seem superficial, but it’s crazy how much of an effect it can have on your confidence when you think you look good.

Think positively

There’s two parts to this. First, think positive thoughts. Second, remove any negative thoughts.

In the morning, say out loud “you’re a great person, you look incredible, and you’re gonna have a great day today!”

When a negative thought comes in your head, argue with yourself. Keep reminding yourself how good you are.

Work on your body language

You want to express confident body language.

Stand tall, speak clearly, talk with your hands, don’t fidget, look people in the eyes, practice active listening, etc.

Exercise

Similar to the idea of looking good, you want to feel good about yourself, and exercise is great way to achieve that.

Besides all of the other amazing health benefits that exercise has, giving you more confidence is one of them.

Help others

Helping others makes you feel more confident in your abilities.

Always offer your help to other coworkers that need it, and seek help from them. You’ll be helping them gain more confidence as well.

And don’t worry about feeling like you don’t have enough time, when we help others, we actually feel LESS time constrained.

7 FAQs on the importance of confidence for your career path

Why is confidence important in the workplace?

Confidence is a game-changer in the workplace. It helps you tackle challenges, make decisions, and communicate like a pro. Plus, it boosts productivity, sparks creativity, and makes the whole work environment brighter.

How does confidence impact career growth and opportunities?

It helps individuals seize opportunities, take risks, and showcase their abilities. Confident professionals are more likely to be entrusted with greater responsibilities and are better positioned for promotions and new opportunities.

Can confidence really improve your job performance?

Absolutely! When you've got confidence on your side, you're unstoppable. It boosts your job performance by keeping you focused, motivated, and ready to tackle any challenge. Say hello to increased productivity and stellar problem-solving skills!

What's the connection between confidence and effective leadership?

Confidence is a superhero trait for leaders! It builds trust, inspires your team, and propels you to make smart decisions. When you rock that confidence, your team will be motivated, conflicts will be a breeze, and success will be your middle name!

How does confidence impact interpersonal relationships?

Confidence plays a significant role in building and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships. Confident individuals are more likely to express themselves authentically, establish boundaries, and engage in effective communication. This fosters better collaboration, builds trust, and leads to stronger connections with colleagues and clients.

Can confidence help in overcoming setbacks and obstacles?

Absolutely! Confidence empowers individuals to bounce back from setbacks and navigate obstacles more effectively. It helps maintain a positive attitude, fuels resilience, and encourages problem-solving. Confident individuals are more likely to view setbacks as learning experiences and persist in their pursuit of success.

What are the benefits of developing self-confidence?

Developing self-confidence brings numerous benefits. It enhances self-esteem, reduces anxiety and stress, and promotes a positive self-image. Confident individuals are more likely to set and achieve goals, handle criticism constructively, and embrace personal growth, leading to greater overall satisfaction and success.

As the nature of our jobs and the environment of our workplaces shift, it's essential for managers to keep a pulse on how their team is feeling and how satisfied employees are in their day-to-day.  In this article, we’ll unpack what actually makes employees feel a sense of job satisfaction and offer budget-friendly strategies for managers to keep employee job satisfaction and motivation high on their teams. 

5 key contributors of job satisfaction: 

A sense of purpose and meaning 

Keeping your employees engaged and satisfied in their jobs means helping them feel connected to the work they do, inspired and motivated by a mission, and able to build a sense of purpose and meaning in their day-to-day. 

In a recent study, employees who felt a sense of meaning and significance from their work reported feeling 1.7 times greater job satisfaction and were 1.4 more engaged.

Respectful relationships and a sense of psychological safety

Some of the best memories we make at work come from the relationships we build with mentors and friends. While it may seem like a challenge for remote workers, there are ways to initiate strong bonds and a safe space for employees to be themselves. Employee job satisfaction and employee engagement derive from an inclusive, blame-free environment where employees can learn from one another and grow within a network of friendships and mentorship.

Healthy and productive work environment 

As many employees shift to remote, their relationship with their work environment changes. How are employees feeling about their new “homemade” offices? How are they feeling away from their workplace and colleagues? Here's an interesting job satisfaction statistic: 

76% of employees are satisfied with their level of comfort in their physical workspace 

Moreover, 66% of employees say their work environment allows them to work distraction-free. These are great questions for managers to ask their team on a continuous basis. You can do that using our simple pulse survey tools. 

Role clarity and growth opportunities

Employees need to understand exactly what is expected of them to bring the most value and see their impact. Beyond understanding what they are meant to do now, work with your employees to set up career goals and milestones so they see their opportunities to grow.  

Fair compensation and authentic recognition 

Today’s employees see work as so much more than a paycheck. It offers a sense of purpose, community and belonging. Although, for employees to feel satisfied and engaged in their jobs they need to feel that they are being paid and valued fairly for the work they do. We ask thousands of employees how they feel about the way they are valued in their company: 

• 44% of employees do not believe that they are paid fairly when taking into account their efforts, skills and experience
  
• 32% of employees do not believe that the way pay is determined in their workplace is fair. 

You can survey your employees using these same questions and many more to really understand how they’re feeling about these sensitive topics. These insights will help guide discussions in 1-on-1 meetings.

 12 Strategies to increase job satisfaction

1. Be realistic with your expectations
2. Recognize good work
3. Focus on the long term
4. Communicate communicate communicate
5. Care about employee well-being
6. Offer opportunities for learning
7. Give frequent feedback
8. Measure engagement frequently
9. Don’t emphasize perks
10. Foster relationships at work
11. Provide a clear career path
12. Empower employees

1. Be realistic with your expectations

Our Officevibe pulse survey finds that only 26% of employees feel that they could maintain a healthy work/life balance. As a leader, your responsibility is to make sure employees aren’t feeling overworked or overwhelmed. It’s important to be mindful about how you assign tasks, despite ambitious team and workplace objectives. 

How do we do it? Check in often on how employees feel about their work-life balance by specifically tracking their Wellness and Work-life Balance levels with a tool like Officevibe. When these metrics are low, take time to dig into the issues and discuss solutions with your whole team.

2. Recognize good work

Our Recognition Hub is a great place to start brainstorming how to authentically recognize employees for the work they do. People need to feel seen and appreciated, but the physical distance of remote work sometimes works against this. Managers must remember to take time to celebrate even small wins and offer positive feedback.

Our research found that 63% of employees feel like they don’t get enough praise. This job satisfaction statistic reveals a huge opportunity for leaders to step up and make their employees proud of their work. 

How do we do it? Set up a Slack channel dedicated to giving public team and individual praise. Be specific about what you’re celebrating (think about the task, project and the impact your employee had).

3. Focus on the long term

To drive motivation and employee job satisfaction, teams need visibility on the long term vision and strategy of the company. This will help employees connect with the goals and understand how they will contribute to achieving them in the long run.

How do we do it?  Show your team that you value their input by asking them to share feedback on the strategy for the upcoming months. Ask what they agree with, what they would do differently, and what they would add. This helps them feel part of the bigger picture. 

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Constant communication is key for both building relationships and ensuring that important work information does not fall through the cracks. 

To create a culture that enables open and honest communication, lead by example. This means communicating your feelings so others feel safe to communicate theirs and providing constant visibility on the information you have. 

How do we do it? Frequently check-in with your team on both a personal and professional level. We do team “Monday morning Check-ins” to learn about everyone’s weekends to stay connected and have weekly “Team Updates” to keep everyone aligned on important news and the business objectives. 

  5. Prioritise employee well-being

Showing employees that you genuinely care about their well-being is one of the most effective ways to increase employee job satisfaction. Whether that means motivating employees towards achieving a fitness milestone or encouraging them to disconnect when they are feeling the early signs of burnout.

How do we do it? Encourage peers to check in on one another and take time in your 1-on-1s to chat on a meaningful human level before jumping into work discussions. Before you can have satisfied employees you need healthy and happy employees. 

6. Offer opportunities for learning

When employees stop learning, they eventually look elsewhere for stimulation. Managers, allow employees to hone in on their skills by attending conferences and webinars, or encourage them to teach others via Lunch and Learns. Keep a mindset of curiosity and learning high! 

How do we do it? Schedule time to speak with your employees about their development and what they want to focus on. Give them concrete information of the learning resources and job training available for them to grow their skills. 

7. Give feedback often

Employees crave feedback on how they can be more efficient, work smarter and perform better. They’ll value the time you took to share the feedback, or especially when it’s constructive. To be sure that your feedback is properly phrased and well-received, take a look at our Manager Toolbox filled with templates and frameworks for giving better feedback. 

How do we do it? Feedback is at the core of our culture and our product. Our 5 best practices can help guide you towards constructive and healthy feedback sessions.

8. Measure engagement frequently

Whether you use pulse surveys, eNPS, or another employee survey solution, the key is to host these frequently. Annual surveys won’t cut it anymore, you need to take a much more agile approach to improve your company’s culture.

How do we do it? Officevibe is the easiest way for managers to measure employee engagement frequently. It’s a completely turn-key solution that collects, analyzes, and suggests ideas for improvements. You can start right now for free! 

9. Don’t emphasize perks

Perks often give workers joy and convenience, but they don’t prove to retain people. Extrinsic job satisfaction will never be enough to retain employees, although one perk that can go a long way is flex time.

How do we do it? Let employees self-organize and create working schedules that work best for them. Demonstrate that you trust them and want them to find value in life outside of work. 

10. Foster relationships at work

Having positive relationships at work is a key proponent of overall employee job satisfaction.  Encourage employees to bond about commonalities outside of work to build strong trustworthy relationships that fuel better collaboration and team trust. Business runs better when people work better together. 

How do we do it? We book time every second Thursday from 4-6 pm to unwind together over Zoom, play a team game, or simply see where the conversation takes us. The goal is to intentionally make time to connect as people!

11. Provide a clear career path

To increase employee satisfaction, help employees plan for the long term. This shows them that you’re committed to their success and you’re willing to invest in them. The more you can work with your employees to map out their career goals, the more satisfied they’ll feel.

How do we do it? Set mentorship meetings. Use our goal setting framework as a base to learn how employees want to develop and then set meaningful goals together.  

12. Empower employees with autonomy 

Employees feel satisfied when they feel a sense of autonomy to achieve work that they can be proud of. This means striking a balance between guiding employees and trusting them to make their own decisions. 

How do we do it? Give clear direction then step back. This means learning how your team can apply their strengths and letting them put them to work on their own. 

Keeping a pulse on employee job satisfaction is important, especially in remote settings and in times of high change. By applying these strategies, you’ll create a ripple effect of employee engagement, motivation and meaningful overall job satisfaction.

The vice president of a Fortune 500 company is speaking at a leadership conference. He’s a polished presenter with an impressive selection of organizational “war stories” delivered with a charming, self-deprecating sense of humor.

The audience likes him. They like him a lot.

Then, as he finishes his comments, he folds his arms across his chest and says, “I’m open for questions. Please, ask me anything.”Suddenly, there is a shift of energy in the room – from engagement to uncertainty.

The audience that was so attentive only moments ago is now somehow disconnected and unable to think of anything to ask.

I was at that event. As one of the presenters scheduled to follow the executive, I was seated at a table onstage with a clear view of the entire room. And the minute I saw that single gesture, I knew exactly how the audience would react.

Later I talked with the speaker (who didn’t realize he’d crossed his arms) and interviewed members of the audience (none of whom recalled the gesture, but all of whom remembered struggling to come up with a question).

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How body language affects managers

So what happened – how could a simple arm movement that none of the participants were even aware of have had such a potent impact? And what does this mean to you as a manager?

Business relationships are all about communication. You already know that. In preparing for an important meeting – with your staff, boss, or clients – you concentrate on what to say, memorize crucial points, and rehearse your presentation so that you will come across as credible and convincing.

But did you also know that the people you’re speaking to will be subliminally evaluating your credibility, confidence, likeability and trustworthiness – and that their evaluation will be only partially determined by what you say?

https://www.slideshare.net/dbenoni/personality-traits-of-a-great-boss-44358501

12 Personality Traits Of A Great Boss from Dan Benoni

Did you know that your use of personal space, physical gestures, posture, facial expressions and eye contact could enhance, support, weaken or even sabotage your message?

The executive who addressed that conference in New York made a basic body language blunder when his gesture didn’t match his words.

And it is this kind of misaligned signaling that your staff or team will also pick up on more quickly and critically than almost any other.

When your nonverbal signals conflict with verbal statements (for example, dropping eye contact and glancing around the room while stating you are being candid, rocking back on your heels when talking about the project’s solid future or – like the VP -- folding your arms while stating you are open to questions) you send mixed messages.

If forced to choose between what you said, and how you looked when saying it, people will discount the verbal content and, instead, believe what they saw.

But why did the executive make that gesture? Did he not want questions? Was he more comfortable standing that way? Was he cold?

I didn’t ask him, because it really didn’t matter.

It never does.

Nonverbal communication speaks volumes

With nonverbal communication, it’s not how the sender feels that matters most; it is how the observer perceives how the sender feels.

And crossing arms is almost always perceived as a closed sign of resistance. That’s why your nonverbal signals don’t always convey what you intended them to.

If you pass a colleague in the hallway and don’t make eye contact, she may jump to the conclusion that you are upset with the report she just turned in.

You may be slouching because you’re tired, but your team will read it as a sign of disinterest. If you frown in a staff meeting, attendees will probably think you didn’t like what you just heard – and they will keep their opinions to themselves.

In fact, when you make any nonverbal display of anger, irritability, or annoyance, people are more likely to hold back their ideas, limit their comments, and look for ways to shorten their interaction with you.

And, by the way, since the human brain pays more attention to negative messages than it does to positive ones, what people unconsciously look for and react to the most, are signs that you are in a bad mood or are not to be approached.

Definition of body language

Body language is the management of time, space, appearance, posture, gesture, touch, expression, eye contact, and vocal prosody.

As such, nonverbal communication is a key part of your effectiveness as a manager. From a body language perspective, effective managers send two sets of signals. Both are very important, but they are each more important under certain circumstances.

For example, powerful people sit, stand, walk and gesture in ways that exude confidence, competence and status.

These are the kind of signal leaders might want to send when addressing the Board of Directors. Leaders send power and authority signals by standing tall, actually expanding into space.

You will notice, for instance, that high-status male executives at a conference table are likely to spread out their paperwork. They may put their arms on the back of other people’s chairs and even sit with their legs far apart.

But the most effective leaders also send nonverbal signals of warmth and empathy – especially when nurturing collaborative environments and managing change. The nonverbal signals that convey inclusiveness, likeability, and friendliness include open palm gestures, leaning slightly forward, giving people eye contact when they talk, nodding your head when someone is speaking, or tilting your head slightly to encourage them to speak more.

Since most of my clients are in organizations that are trying to move from a hierarchical command control structure to a flatter, more nimble, and more collaborative environment, I see a lot of senior managers who run into body language challenges.

They are so used to having to project a strong persona that they don’t realize the power of letting the other set of (empathy) signals take over.

Of course, learning to align body language with intents and messages is only one side of the nonverbal coin.

More business executives are learning not only how to send the right signals, but also how to read them.

Peter Drucker, the renowned author, professor and management consultant, understood this clearly:

In a meeting, when people aren’t completely onboard with an initiative, leaders need to be able to recognize what’s happening – and to respond quickly.

During the hiring process, the ability to read nonverbal cues can make the difference between a great hire and a big mistake. And knowing when a negotiating partner is bluffing is a skill well worth developing.

Good body language skills can help your executives influence and motivate direct reports, improve productivity, bond with audiences, present ideas with more authority and impact, and authentically project their personal brand of charisma. That’s a powerful set of skills for any leader to develop.

Do leaders in your office have bad body language?

Do you think they can do a better job of being more open and have better communication with employees? If it's something that's a little taboo to talk about within your organization, just use an anonymous feedback tool like Officevibe in order to address the situation.

If you'd like to reach our guest contributor, feel free to reach her by checking out her social media outlets provided in the bio, or contact us and we'll provide you with information.

When measuring employee engagement and satisfaction, the employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, is the metric you should use to get actionable insights.

Salary is no longer the leading determining factor for employee loyalty and productivity. Employees want to take on new challenges, learn new skills, and know that their organization values their time and input.

Collaboration, flexibility, and the company’s culture also determine employee experience (EX) and retention rates.

Considering all these factors to measure employee engagement can be challenging. However, the eNPS provides a user-friendly engagement tool you can use to analyze employee satisfaction and identify areas for continuous improvement.

This guide will take an in-depth look at the employee Net Promoter Score, its scoring methodology, and how one single question can be a powerful springboard to measuring and improving engagement within your organization.

Measuring employee engagement: What is the eNPS?

The employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a simple way to track loyalty and pride for your organization. And it’s an important part of the Engagement Metrics in Officevibe. It measures employees’ willingness to recommend your organization as a good place to work, and whether they’re engaged and enthusiastic about their work. It evolved from the original customer-focused Net Promoter System.

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The history of employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

It started in 2003 when Fred Reichheld, a partner at Bain & Company (founders of the Net Promoter System), created a new way to measure how well an organization treats the people whose lives it affects — or how well it generates relationships worthy of loyalty. He called that metric the Net Promoter Score or NPS®.

He didn’t keep the methodology to himself. He shared it so anyone could apply it, and organizations developed and expanded it over time. It evolved to extend its use beyond customers, applying it to help build employee engagement and commitment. The new methods had broadened impact, not just on measuring customer loyalty but now also on transforming their organizations.

– The Net Promoter System

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The NPS question asks: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organization’s products or services to a friend or colleague?”

While the eNPS question asks: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organization as a place to work to others?”

The employee Net Promoter Score respondent categories

Depending on their answers, your employee Net Promoter Score survey respondents will fall into three categories:

• Promoters: Engaged employees with a score of 9 or 10
• Neutrals: Employees with an eNPS score of 7 or 8
• Detractors: Employees with a score ranging from 0 to 6

Promoters

Promoters are satisfied employees who contribute positively to promoting company image and growth. The company culture resonates with these employees and inspires them to deliver top-tier work.  

Unfortunately, many companies don’t focus on these employees when evaluating employee Net Promoter Score surveys.

Promoters’ feedback can provide valuable insights into what positively contributes to their employee experience, and companies should leverage this information to retain talented employees and increase productivity.

Neutrals

Neutral employees are generally satisfied with their work environment but remain open to offers from other companies.

These employees are not likely to recommend the organization as a workplace. Still, they won’t speak negatively about the company.

The answers from neutrals don’t form part of the eNPS formula. However, gauging neutral employee sentiment is crucial, especially since most employees might fall into this category.

Using the feedback from these employees, the human resources department can implement practical improvements, transforming the neutrals into promoters.  

Detractors        

Detractors are employees who are unlikely to recommend the business as a workplace. Even an answer of “6” in employee engagement surveys typically indicates that the employee is at least partially unsatisfied at work.

The risk of detractors leaving the business is high, and swift action is necessary to prevent this from happening. You can determine the causes of low worker engagement through a stay interview.

Gathering and evaluating this feedback is crucial to minimizing employee turnover and costs. Leading companies genuinely care about detractors’ problems and encourage honest feedback. When a detractor gives details about why they are unhappy, believe them and assume that other employees might be experiencing the same issues.

Employee Net Promoter Score Pros

Deploying an eNPS survey holds various advantages for your organization:

• Usability. One of the most significant benefits of the eNPS survey is its ease of use. Employees only need to answer one question, saving valuable time and eliminating survey fatigue.
• High participation rates. Because the eNPS is a quick and easy survey, you can expect most employees to take the time to answer this question.
• Accurate assessment of employee engagement. The eNPS accurately reflects how employees feel about recommending the company. When employees answer the question anonymously, they will likely have no problem being honest, allowing you to detect the causes of low productivity and engagement.
• Accurate reflection of team satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is one component of EX, and deploying this survey will help you detect potential issues that increase employee turnover.
• Cost-effective feedback tool. Because the eNPS only consists of one question, you can quickly deploy this survey via the organization’s existing communication channel at no additional cost.
  • For example, when you deploy Officevibe to your organization, every employee will receive the eNPS question in their Onboarding Survey. After that, the employees will receive the question again every three months.
• Continuous measuring. Your organization can deploy the eNPS survey more frequently than extensive annual engagement surveys, allowing for effective and ongoing EX monitoring.
• Benchmarking suitability. The results of an eNPS survey are easy to benchmark against your organization’s past results. Comparing how you’ve scored in the past or how you’re doing vs. other teams in your organization can give you a better idea of where and when things might have changed or where you need to focus your efforts.
• Similar to NPS. Your employees should be ambassadors for the company and be inclined to promote its products and services to others. Using similar metrics for employees and customers in your organization’s communications can help you deliver products and services of the highest quality.
• Identify general problem areas within the organization. The eNPS effectively measures employee engagement and satisfaction. However, these metrics can highlight underlying issues in the organization, helping you optimize interdepartmental communication, employee recognition, and other factors.

Employee Net Promoter Score Cons

The simplicity of eNPS is one of its main advantages over other key performance indicators. However, the fact that this score only consists of one question can also be a limitation.

Once employees respond to this survey, you will only know how many team members are promoters, neutrals, or detractors, but you won’t know why.

In some cases, using the eNPS as a stand-alone feedback tool can be ineffective, and you should consider including it as part of a more extensive feedback program.

You can also create a survey around the eNPS with follow-up questions. However, you will need to know the employee’s scores to ensure that you ask the right questions.

The employee Net Promoter Score methodology

The employee Net Promoter Score’s popularity is due to its simplicity. Completing the eNPS questionnaire only takes a few seconds, and you can encourage employees to take this survey more regularly than annual employee engagement surveys. The result? Frequent, quick surveys allow for more consistent input and support a proactive and informed feedback loop.

Short, anonymous feedback requires less effort to analyze than complex, lengthy annual surveys, allowing you to take swift action on what’s working and needs improving.

How to calculate the eNPS

The eNPS formula is relatively straightforward. To determine the eNPS score of your business or a specific department, start by calculating:

1. The percentage of promoters among respondents
2. The percentage of detractors among respondents

Next, subtract the detractor percentage from the promoter percentage. In other words:

Let’s look at a practical example of how to measure employee loyalty using the eNPS.

Suppose your organization has 50 employees, and they all participate in the eNPS questionnaire. Upon receiving their results, you notice that of the 50 employees:

• 12 (24%) are detractors
• 20 (40%) are neutrals
• 18 (36%) are promoters

In this example, 24% of your employees are detractors, and 36% are promoters. We don’t include the 40% neutral employees in the eNPS formula.

36% (promoters) – 24% (detractors) = 12%, or an employee Net Promoter Score of +12.

When calculating the eNPS, you don’t consider neutral employees, as their score alone doesn’t provide valuable insights. However, gathering feedback from these employees is critical. Employees who skipped this question are also neutrals.

As you can see from our example, if you have a positive employee Net Promoter Score, your business has more promoters than detractors, indicating relatively high employee loyalty.

If the eNPS is negative, the company has more detractors than promoters. If this is the case, you’ll need to consider employee feedback carefully to zero in on issues with employee engagement.

The importance of your eNPS

Why should you measure eNPS and consistently work to increase this score?

The eNPS gives an accurate indication of employee experience throughout your entire organization. Employee experience is how your team perceives all interactions with their employer. The various aspects affecting employee experience include the physical workspace, company culture, and the company’s technologies.

Employee engagement and optimal productivity are among the most significant benefits of a positive employee experience.

Employees who feel optimistic about the work environment tend to be proactive and resolve issues through creative problem-solving.

When the company-wide EX is positive, absenteeism rates are low. Happy employees enjoy being at work and are not constantly looking for reasons to play hooky.

Improving employee engagement also promotes team loyalty, keeping turnover costs low. These costs include:

• The cost of marketing a vacant position
• The cost of hiring a new employee
• The cost of training a new employee
• The costs relating to lower productivity due to lower team morale

You can prevent these costs and optimize profitability by keeping your finger on the pulse of employee engagement and taking appropriate steps to make sure that your employees are happy.

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Ensuring optimal employee satisfaction: What are good employee Net Promoter Scores?

How do you know if your company’s employee Net Promoter Score results are on track?

In theory, these scores range from -100 (100% of employees are detractors) to +100 (100% of employees are promoters). In practice, these scores range from -50 to +50, though scores outside these brackets are possible.

If your company’s eNPS is lower than -10, drastic steps are necessary to improve employee engagement. Look at the answers to follow-up questions to identify areas where improvements are necessary.

Scores ranging from -10 to +20 are normal. If the scores are higher than +10, you can be proud of your company’s level of employee engagement.

An eNPS above +40 is excellent, and you should actively work towards keeping employee engagement at this level. Consult with promoters to determine what the company is doing right.

Ways to improve your employee Net Promoter Score

Here’s how to improve your eNPS and help your company maintain optimal employee satisfaction and engagement.

Incorporate the eNPS into a feedback program

The eNPS consists of only one question, and the answers are numbers ranging from 0 to 10. While these scores are insightful, you will need to dive deeper with a more extensive feedback program to gain additional valuable insights.

Formulate follow-up surveys with open-ended questions to evaluate each eNPS response within a better context. Here are some example follow-up questions to help get you started. Including the eNPS in an employee feedback program will clarify where improvements are necessary.

Communicate with all responders

Find out why your responders gave the answers they did, starting with the detractors.

Passive responders have the potential to become detractors or promoters, and you need to ensure that they fall into the latter camp.

Neutral employees include those who didn’t respond to the survey, and you need to target them in your comprehensive questionnaire, even if you don’t include their scores in the eNPS formula.  

Don’t leave your promoters unattended because you think they’re content. Knowing why they gave a high eNPS can be valuable in formulating long-term solutions for employee engagement.

Monitor your organization’s eNPS continuously

Consistent monitoring is crucial to ensure that your goals to optimize EX are on track. After making positive changes, regularly deploy an eNPS as a feedback tool to determine how effective these improvements are.

You should also measure the eNPS results against the previous responses to gauge your organization’s direction.

For example, poor survey results might coincide with a launch of a company initiative that puts extra pressure on employees. Collecting historical data paints a richer picture of your organization’s EX state over time.

Maintain transparency and open communication channels

Listening to feedback can significantly boost team members’ engagement and satisfaction. In some cases, establishing transparency might require an open discussion about the employees’ survey results and their answers to each follow-up question. With a tool like Officevibe, this type of discussion can remain anonymous thanks to in-app feedback messaging. That way, everyone feels comfortable sharing honest insights on engagement topics.

Consider discussing team scores during performance reviews. You should also let them know how you plan to address their concerns, then check in with them after you make improvements.

The promoters’ input is valuable in boosting employee Net Promoter Scores. Thank the promoters for their feedback and ask why they are likely to recommend the organization to other highly talented individuals.

In some cases, promoters notice organizational efforts that other colleagues might not. Focusing on these efforts can help increase the eNPS results.

Continuously improve

Taking action is the key to improving your employee Net Promoter Scores.

This feedback tool lets you determine which actions you need to take to optimize employee engagement and productivity while preventing team members from leaving the company.

After deploying an eNPS and communicating with employees, formulate and implement specific actions to make improvements. Then, using following-up surveys or conversations, ensure that these actions were effective.

How often should you measure eNPS?

How regularly you deploy an eNPS feedback tool depends on your organization and your employees’ challenges. Ideally, your company should conduct eNPS surveys at least once per year.

If your organization operates within a high-intensity industry, eNPS rollouts should be more frequent, allowing you to monitor employee engagement.

Measuring eNPS once a quarter seems to be effective across most industries. You can also conduct eNPS surveys after changing company policies and incentives, gauging how they affect employee engagement. Because completing these surveys is a relatively quick process, you can conduct them more frequently than comprehensive surveys consisting of multiple questions. However, sending these surveys out once a month or more frequently can result in questionnaire fatigue.

Employee Net Promoter score benchmarking

Benchmarking your eNPS against competitors is not ideal, as getting accurate scores is not always easy. And even if it was, doing so doesn’t give you the insights you need to make practical improvements with your team.

Suppose your eNPS is higher than that of a competitor. Does that mean your eNPS is at the level it should be? Not necessarily.

Your competitors don’t have the same number of team members as your organization, and they have an organizational culture that differs from yours.

Other companies also face unique circumstances and challenges, including regulatory requirements, which might, unfortunately, take priority over employee experience and satisfaction.

Instead, your organization should be benchmarking against itself. Your eNPS should improve over time, especially after making organizational changes.

For example, if your eNPS was +5 in 2022, aim for a score of +10 in 2023. Then, if all goes according to plan, you can set a score goal of +15 for 2024.

Your reputation counts

How do your employees view your organization? At Officevibe, the employee Net Promoter Score is among our most effective engagement tools to help you gauge how your team feels and interacts with your business, customers, and target market. And we’re not the only ones. Organizations like HubSpot, Salesforce, Apple, and Netflix recognize the value of this simple survey tool and use eNPS to measure employee engagement and keep an eye on their employer brand.

But eNPS is only the beginning.

Many people make the mistake of focusing too much on the eNPS. While tracking and continuously improving this metric is valuable, it’s not all that matters. The eNPS is only one part of an entire feedback loop that should include employee engagement surveys, performance reviews, and regular one-on-ones to keep the conversations and development flowing.

It’s easy to get started. With Officevibe, you can do all that. Automate eNPS question sends by including the question in their next Pulse Survey, and you’ll guarantee a follow-up and consistent scoring every 90 days. Just another way we make sure you have the most complete and up-to-date data on your reputation as an employer. Try for free today.

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If you’re leading a distributed team, you may have realized over the last two or so years that there’s so much more to it than downloading Zoom and sauntering into the virtual space. Much like thought goes into the architecture of office spaces to enhance team collaboration and productivity, the same thought needs to go into how we function in a digital reality. Moving beyond how we arrange desks and what motivational words we hang on the walls, leaders of distributed teams need to consider how to rearrange work processes, rituals for connecting, and more.

In this article, you’ll learn four best practices to live by that set the foundation for successful team performance.

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4 best practices to lead a distributed team:

• Connection has to be intentional
• Provide them with the tools they need to succeed
• Keep a pulse on team health
• Don't be a helicopter manager

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Why it’s important to have structure on a distributed team

A distributed team without structure is a ticking time bomb; set up to fail, even implode.  Think of it this way,  a company and the teams that form them are like microcosms of our society at large. The reason why we are able to function well as a society is because there are a set of common norms in place - a structure. Traffic lights to guide our movements and laws to help guide a set of expected behaviors. Remote teams, most especially those working from different cities and time zones, need this same sort of guidance to overcome their challenges. A set of “rules and tools” to harmonize processes, work methods, and expectations.

4 best practices to lead distributed teams

1. Connection has to be intentional

The remote and distributed workforce models are widely appreciated by modern workers, but not without certain pitfalls. When the pandemic hit, our ability to socialize and connect with people took a hit, and for many this was detrimental. Harvard Business Review discusses the rise in loneliness, citing that it “brings health problems, reduced productivity, turnover, and burnout.” Teams whose sense of connection is broken risk falling into a spell of underperformance. Why? Relationships, trust, and the ability to communicate comfortably with one another make up the infrastructure of successful teams.

Make connections happen:

Managers, while your remote team cannot physically be together during lunch hour, be sure to set some virtual lunches on your team’s calendar. These casual moments of connection we once had at the office were essential in creating positive team dynamics, so don’t let them fall flat. This is especially true as you bring in new hires who have not had the chance to meet anyone in person.

2. Provide them with the tools they need to succeed

Remote teams require the right tools to function seamlessly. It’s your job to help your remote team move into a virtual space, and ensure they use the most appropriate tools for their needs.

Choosing the right set of distributed work tools typically starts at the organizational level to ensure that all teams across the company are working harmoniously. However, it’s important to ask your team what they need, too. Be open to hearing about what types of software they might need to be more productive, efficient, and even creative from home. And of course, be prepared to pitch them to your own manager.

Tools to consider

1. Communication tools

There are many shapes and forms communication can take on distributed teams. Think about daily written communication tools like Slack, email tools like Outlook, video communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and hybrid work tools like Officevibe.

Officevibe allows distributed team managers to keep communication lines open at all times, heightening the employee voice. Offering a feedback platform for employees to share both their hopes and challenges is a game-changer for employee engagement. Try Officevibe for free.

2. Collaboration tools

No more whiteboards and post-its to get a good brainstorm going. You’ll need to find new ways for your distributed team to collaborate. Consider a tool like Miro to host successful collaboration sessions or a project management tool like Asana to keep track of collaboration on your team. Our team has thrived using it!

3. Retrospective tools

Now more than ever, teams need to look back and discuss how things have been going, together. These moments of reflection are essential for teams to have honest discussions with one another about team dynamics, or even work processes.

Retrospectives are team meetings where managers and employees sit together and reflect on the work done during a certain period (usually since the last retrospective). These team meetings allow employees to be agile and iterate, so they can constantly improve.

3. Keep a pulse on team “health”, and give employees a voice

Working in person allowed leaders to have visual signals as to how their people were feeling, but when working remotely, it’s not as easy to gauge. If managers begin to lose track of how their people are doing, performance can unravel quickly, and turnover might spike.

The best tip for managers of distributed teams is to remember that out of sight should not mean out of mind. Find ways to check in with your people often. Remember to give them a voice constantly. This means asking them to share opinions and voice ideas, as well as providing them with the right moments and tools to do it.

How managers can check in with their distributed teams

Hold frequent 1-on-1s: We suggest weekly virtual 1-on-1s with each team member to check in both as people, and workers. Take the time to ask how people are doing, what blockers they have, and how you can help. Even 30 minutes a week reminds employees that you care. It’s also an essential time to align on expectations and make sure they’re set up to achieve their goals.

Use a pulse survey tool for distributed teams: Officevibe - our Pulse Survey and feedback tool -  provinces managers with a weekly report on their team’s health across 10 levels of employee engagement. It automates all the important questions you want to ask but might not have time to, giving remote team members a continuous voice.

4. Don’t becopter manager  

Managers with newly remote or distributed teams need to be mindful of micromanaging tendencies that might pop up. You went from having a full visual of where people were and what they were doing every day to having a smaller lens on what people are up to.

Wait. Before you check in one too many times, remember that you hired your people for a reason and that remote employees expect trust and autonomy from their leaders.

How to avoid micromanaging

First, be honest with your team. You’re all going through a change together. If you’re unsure of whether you’re checking in too much, let them know that you’re working on finding the balance, and ask them to tell you if they’re feeling “smothered” or untrusted. This vulnerability is helpful in creating more authentic relationships with your distributed team members.

In addition, here are some reflection questions you might want to ask yourself before you send that message or make that call.

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Reflection questions to avoid micromanaging:

1. Do I need to know this now? Or, can it wait until our upcoming 1-on-1?

2. Did this team member give me a reason to assume they are not on top of their tasks? Or is this my own need for control?

3. Do I feel pressured by my own manager for constant updates? If so, maybe the talk you need to have is with them, not with your team.

4. Would contacting my employee right now distract them from the work they’re getting done?

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How can leaders thrive in a distributed environment?

We’ve covered how you can help remote employees thrive, but what about you? You play a crucial role in leading a healthy, high-functioning dispersed team, but a team is only as strong as the leader who guides them. So, let’s take a minute to make sure you’re well set up as well. Here’s some advice from Officevibe’s own managers on managing distributed teams.

1. Ask your manager for the tools YOU need to perform. Don’t hesitate to voice what’s needed to be successful in a distributed reality (just be sure to make a case for its impact).
2. If your manager is not scheduling you for 1-on-1s, be sure to ask for them. You need an outlet as much as your employees, and expectations around your success is critical to the success of your entire team.
3. Find a mentor in your company who has worked in a distributed workplace before so you can bounce ideas. If that’s not the case, take the time to connect with other managers to share best practices and learnings around navigating this new reality.
4. If you encourage work-life balance on your remote team, be sure to prioritize it for yourself too. Lead by example.

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