Be a leader to your employees, not a boss.

Be a leader to your employees, not a boss.

I'm sure you've seen the memes or images that show stick figures being a leader to the employees and paving the way vs. being a boss to your employees and standing on top of them while you make them work to death.

Increasing the workflow and moral of your employees starts with you, the "boss". You need to be doing the work along side them when you can so they know you can do what they can and you're not just an idea man who's making money off of their hard work. I understand that the CEO is the main person who runs the company in their own way, but if they are not on the ground floor with the employees a couple times a week then the company won't have very happy employees after a year or so.

Being a leader to your employees will make it so you're part of the team and not just the boss. You probably won't get invited out for cocktails because you're still the one who signs the check. Even if you do get invited out, you'll probably have to decline or if you choose to attend you should probably leave after one or two drinks so you can still have a professional atmosphere at work. You can be friendly with your employees, but becoming best friends will hurt in the long run.


A few things you can do:

1. Remove the word "You" when talking to an employee. Replace it with "We" and people will feel that you're more involved with their projects. You'll have to actually be involved somewhat though. No one will expect you to do all of the work, but you'll need to show that you want to help out as part of a team.
   
2. Compliment whenever you can. This increases the moral and even if people don't say it, they will think "The CEO just told me I've been doing a great job!"
   
3. If there's a problem, don't start yelling because you're angry. Get analytical and break down everything that happened and go over every detail with your team to figure out how to avoid this problem later on.
   
4. Never single out one person when something goes wrong. If you do this you're just going to create a cancer because the person will think you hate them and they will eventually become malicious and spread rumors or even try to sabotage the work being done. It's shady, but does happen.
   

Does anyone have anything else they'd like to add?