Given a choice, every employee I know will choose a positive work environment over a negative or toxic one any day of the week.
Leaders are wise to pay attention to their work environment because employee retention has become a serious concern for most employers. In addition to staff turnover, an organization’s work environment directly correlates to employee engagement.
Leadership Tip
Implement actions that will create a sustainable and positive work environment.
How do you do this? Here are three actions you can implement to create a positive work environment:
- Provide genuine and sincere recognition to individuals and teams for their accomplishments. They can be contributions to the organization’s vision, mission, goals, strategic initiatives, or any other meaningful actions. Being grateful for jobs well done goes a long way to creating a positive work environment.
- Be open-minded and listen to your employees. They have ideas and opinions that could make improvements, but you’ll never know if you don’t listen to them. Remaining open-minded on decisions and letting go of your own biases greatly contributes to creating a positive work environment.
- Ineffective communication from a leader can cause confusion, worry, chaos, frustration, and mistrust. To effectively communicate, determine what’s causing you problems. For example, ineffective communication can occur:
- When you’re rushed—slow down, delegate, empower, and develop solid messages.
- When you don’t have defined goals and priorities, which confuses people—provide clarity.
- When you don’t choose your words wisely—instead, generate excitement, enthusiasm, and engagement with clear messages.
A positive work environment isn’t the only thing you have to create as a leader, but it’s a great place to start.
