How to Speak To An Employee & Still Get The Job Done !!

Respectful treatment of employees is a corner stone of a fair and effective management practice. The relationship between employers and employees can be strong or it can be fragile. When you display respect to your workers, you stand to receive their respect. Apply the ancient, yet still appropriate, Golden Rule. Talk to your employees the way you would like them to speak to you. How you rise to each occasion may be challenging at times, but the reward is worth the effort to bring respect into every communication with the people you entrust your small business.

1. Practice general rules of respectful behavior. Speak to your employees without insults. Express interest in your workers’ opinions and concerns. Participate in a no-gossip work culture.

2. Communicate your needs to employees with clarity. Ask employees questions to verify details, advises Nancy Byerly Jones in the article, “Respecting Employees: Do You Talk It, Show It or Both?” Provide workers opportunities to ask questions without fear of recrimination.

3. Give your employees your complete attention in conversations. Practice active listening. Repeat what they say to you. Ask others to wait until you complete your conversations with employees.

4. Say good things to your employees. Express satisfaction with jobs done well.

5. Engage in difficult conversations about issues, such as employee behavior or problem projects, with objectivity. Speak without anger, recrimination or personal attacks about issues.

How Does Improved Work Relationships Affect Performance?

Employees in a small business may work closely together for long hours. For a small-business owner, striving to create a positive working environment can make these long hours a pleasure. Employees also benefit from improved working relationships, both in how they approach job tasks and in establishing open lines of communication with one another.

Improving Work Morale
Improving relationships among coworkers helps improve morale for a staff as a whole. Increased morale leads to a more positive working environment. When employees are happy at work, they actively engage in assignments and focus less on escapist behaviors -- long coffee or smoke breaks, personal Internet browsing, for examples -- that can keep workers from finishing assignments in a timely manner. A steady increase in active engagement over time from improved morale can increase employee productivity. Workers completing assignments faster can help increase earnings for the entire business.

Developing Business Loyalty
Employees who lack close working relationships with fellow professionals don't mentally invest in the job or show a great deal of loyalty to the business. This lack of personal investment occurs because employees don't establish the personal attachments that can come with improved working relationships and friendships. Strengthening working relationships can generate increased loyalty to the business because employees view the company as the link to friendships/work relationships, according to Susan Fowler, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies. Employees arrive to work every day not just to do a job, but also to connect with coworkers on a personal level.

Asking For Help
Asking an adversary at work for help can be a sign of weakness that an employee without positive relationships may not want to show. Without adequate help, an unsolved work problem can grow into an issue that affects the delivery of an entire project. Developing working relationships based on trust and mutual respect can create an atmosphere conducive to teamwork. This climate makes it easier for an employee with a problem to go to coworkers for help without seeming inadequate or simply bad at his job.

Supporting Employee Development
Encouraging workers to form mutually uplifting relationships with coworkers can create a supportive network for skill development. Through close relationships, employees share techniques and strategies to complete work assignments quickly and efficiently. In this supportive environment, employees aren't hoarding tricks of the trade in an effort to distinguish themselves or "beat out" fellow workers for better job opportunities. The result is a more knowledgeable workforce with improved abilities and a wider range of skills.