What employees expect

Last week, we looked into what leaders expect of their subordinates, as detailed by AlliedSignal and Honeywell chair Larry Bossidy in Harvard Business Review. Get involved, collaborate, give ideas. Develop your people, develop yourself. Stay updated, stay the course.

Now we look at what Bossidy’s followers expect of him, and what other leaders can do to earn the trust and respect of subordinates.

Directions and goals

Clarity and concreteness of goals are key, yet these are pitfalls in family businesses, particularly those that are not professionalized. Founders who want to retain control do not give a big enough picture for employees, and in many cases, they just demand that “we need to increase sales!”

Every quarter at least, leaders need to give actual figures to employees (not all figures, but those with a direct impact on their performance) to provide a proper context for motivating workers to reach targets.

Performance evaluation is often nebulous, with employees wondering why some people are compensated or treated better than others. Clear-cut, spelled-out goals (short-term, medium-term) need to be given by the human resources team—or better still, by the direct boss—so that followers will know how they are assessed, and how best to invest their efforts and resources.

“Morale suffers if people think there’s some mystery … some behind-the-scenes explanation [on evaluations],” says Bossidy. “As a CEO, I never felt uncomfortable when somebody came to ask me why I had put one person into a role rather than another. If I couldn’t explain my decision, then shame on me.”

As for performance evaluations, “forget HR jargon that attempts to disguise reality,” says Bossidy. The most effective evaluations are simple: they list what the employee does well, ways to improve, and ways by which he or she and the boss can work together better.

Be decisive, timely, accessible

“Decisiveness isn’t useful if it isn’t timely,” says Bossidy. “When a big contract is on the line, the time for the boss to pitch in is not the last minute, it’s a month earlier … I shouldn’t be making the call at the eleventh hour; I should make it well before the deal is set to close, when I can have the most impact.”

Hands-off bosses have their advantages (for example, they allow motivated employees to get the work done their own way), but more often than not, leaders who are seldom in the office find it harder to stay on top of situations, particularly emergencies that inevitably arise.

Many young people decry spending time at the office—and prefer to work at a nearby café or from home—and within limits, their complaint has merit. However, unless leaders have extremely capable second-in-commands whom they trust to report to them regularly (both good and bad news), remaining inaccessible is not wise.

Demonstrate candor

Good leaders do not shy away from unpleasant tasks, including the delivery of bad news.

Being candid is not easy in Asian family businesses, where loss of face is avoided at all costs. When bosses are reluctant to correct erring employees however, peer relationships suffer, and so does the business. When bosses let go of employees on one pretext or the other (anything but the painful truth), morale suffers, and so does the business.

Diplomatic language goes a long way.

But “masking the truth doesn’t help people develop,” says Bossidy. Just as effective fathers are present not just for good times on Sundays but also when children need instruction, so too do effective leaders need to personally deliver not just praise, but also honest feedback to employees when needed.