The leadership skills and behaviors that were identified for
improvement were trustworthiness, empathy, and supportiveness as
well as recognition of accomplishments.
Trustworthiness
Specific question(s): “I trust my supervisor” and “Provides leadership
who act in just and ethical ways”
Improvements in trustworthiness are vital to any company.
Companies thrive because their employees trust their supervisors.
Without trust in supervisors that they can make decisions that are
best for the company, the employees will begin to leave. A company
cannot stay open without having employees. The fact that only 24%
of the employees surveyed trust their supervisors make
trustworthiness one of the most important leadership skills that the
supervisors need to work on.
Empathy
Specific question(s): “My company cares about its employees”
A company that shows empathy means that leadership shows they
care about their employees as well as their well-being. While 60% of
the employees surveyed believe that the company cares about them,
the number of positive responses has dropped 15% over the last four
years. Improving empathy skills would also improve the employees’
job satisfaction. As with trustworthiness, employees will leave the
company if they are not satisfied with the job, thus creating the
downfall of the company.
Supportiveness
Specific questions(s): “When I am having difficulty my Supervisor is
there to support me so I do not feel abandoned” and “My company
cares about its employees”
Supportiveness goes hand-in-hand with empathy. Supportiveness is
important to employees as everyone experiences difficulty in the job.
Job satisfaction and performance will decrease as supportiveness
decreases. Improvements in supportiveness will not only help the
employees, and supervisors will be able to understand more about
their employees. For both of the questions mentioned above, 35% of
employees surveyed believe their supervisor is there to support
them, and 60% of the employees surveyed believe that the company
cares about their employees. Both of these numbers are low for a
company that wants to have increased job satisfaction and job
performance.
Recognition of accomplishments
Specific question(s): “My supervisor shows appreciation for the work
that I do” and “My supervisor takes the time to praise those who do
an excellent job”
Finally, recognition of accomplishments is directly related to job
satisfaction. Improvements in praising employees will greatly
increase job satisfaction. When the company surveyed their
employees, 35% of the employees said that the supervisors show
appreciation for the work completed, and the percentage of
employees that believe that supervisors take time to praise for an
excellent job is exactly the same. As with the other leadership skills
mentioned, these numbers are too low and could result in employees
leaving the company for other companies that praise them for a job
well done. Improvements would help with employee retention as
well as job satisfaction among those employees still at the company.
Improvements in the areas mentioned above will positively impact
the survey results by having more positive responses to each survey
question. It may take a little while for the survey results to seem
more positive, but eventually they should get there if the company
works on trustworthiness, empathy, supportiveness, and recognition
of accomplishments. The improvement of these areas would also
positively impact the work environment, specifically job satisfaction
and job performance.
