Servant Leadership Mastery
Strategies, Stories, and Stimulus for Leading with Respect Along with Results
Chapter 6.
What Do Team Members Want from Their Leader?
Appreciation
In today’s organizations, team members are leaders themselves, even if they are not team leaders they could be project leaders. They have gained task power and expertise on the specific subject matter. Team leaders that micromanage experts in their own right make them feel ostracised, and over time, a lack of motivation shows up in a lack of performance. This may be many of the causes of the ‘quit and stayed’ situation where employees do the minimum every day because they do not have the heart to continue as they are not appreciated due to over-supervision. This is when quiet quitting appears and takes over the workplace, as it could turn viral among others reporting to the same type of controlling leader or culture of the organization.
TIP: The easiest way to stop controlling and to start empowering is to Stop Expecting and Start Appreciating others. The APPRECIATION of little things and moments with one another makes interactions and the working environment lighter and easier for people to relate to the leader.
My field research on Servant Leadership (Pressentin, 2020, 2021, 2022), studying from the team members’ perspective shows that appreciation for work done frequently is a top 6 desired, but not received, sign of RESPECT from the leader. When a leader begins with respect by showing appreciation, research findings show that not only it is reciprocated, team members were more motivated to engage with the leader, while they spent discretionary effort at work. “I love my work, because it’s fun to come to the office, my boss and my colleagues are my friends!”, a participant in the research expressed, resulting in proactive creative problem-solving and overperformance.
Starting with this light and easy gesture of finding what people did right every day, is a great conversation starter in your interactions.
Enjoy it!
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Dr. Maria Pressentin is a Servant Leadership Strategist, a multi-award-winning behavioral scientist, and a leadership development professional, Maria helps people shift their mindset and apply serving-leader skills to their daily interactions. Her work involves incorporating competencies of servant leadership in organizational functional and strategic roles to build long-term vitality in businesses. Her latest book is titled “Key Factors and Use Cases of Servant Leadership Driving Organizational Performance”, IGI Global, 2021.
