What Do Your Employee's Really Want From Their Boss

As a follow-up to my last blog "What Your Boss Really Wants From You - The Six Golden Rules", I am writing this blog from the perspective of the employee.  


If you manage people you have most likely had many occasion to ponder this question, what do my employee's really want from me?  After twenty-two years of coaching both employees and managers alike, I have found that there are some fairly consistent answers to this question.

In my experience the vast majority of employees I have interacted with consistently identify the following four things that they want from their boss:

1. Have A Basic Interest In Me As A Person- most employees want to know that their boss actually has some basic level of genuine interest in their working and home lives e.g. what type of work motivates them, what employees do on their down time and what their interests or hobbies are.
2. Have My Back - employees would like to know their boss is loyal to them and will go to bat for them if the circumstance requires it.
3. Acknowledge My Contributions - employees do like to receive praise and positive feedback as it validates their sense of self worth and contribution to organizational successes.
4. Treat Me Fairly - they expect their manager to be fair in their delegation of workload, access to opportunities for advancement and allocation of annual pay/merit increases.

So if you have direct reports, you will want to ensure these fundamentals are in place as they provide the basis for a respectful and healthy working relationship.  So to use an analogy, just like a chair, all four legs need to be firmly in place and planted on the ground in order for you to have strength and stability so should you choose to follow these four simple but impactful tips, you should have the building blocks for a healthy and successfully working relationship with your employees that will pay dividends.