Controlling oneself and one’s words is an essential quality of managers, executives or leaders. Spending time expressing your feelings with derogatory remarks and comments is evidence of leadership incompetence. Fortunately, however, this attitude can be changed because it is often a reflection of the stress and anxiety inherent in responsibilities.
Never make a colleague lose face
Respect for people must be part of the DNA framework. Certainly, managers have a certain authority over their colleagues. However, not everything is allowed to them!!! They must show respect through their behavior and words. They can easily lose all credibility with clumsy criticisms or sentences that are mostly a reflection of their emotions and lack of control.
Praise encourages people to excel. However, we often see that managers, due to clumsiness or stress, do not understand the meaning of short phrases that we could call killer phrases, which are a source of demotivation.
Here are some sentences that hurt and are a source of demotivation for teams.
“I command, I decide”
Employees know how to recognize that managers have a certain authority within the company. They can make decisions and perform actions in the name and on behalf of the company. They no longer have to remind their colleagues that they are in charge. On the contrary, they must be listened to and their opinion taken into account in order to establish a real team spirit within the company.
“This project is beyond me”
As a responsible person within the company, managers must set a good example for their colleagues. Despite the difficulties, they must be very positive and avoid saying sentences that could demotivate the whole team. Among the phrases that managers must avoid at all costs: “this project is beyond me”, “we risk not being able to realize it”, “it is too risky”…
“I’m sorry, it’s not my responsibility.”
Employees resort to the help of their superiors because they recognize their abilities and skills. Managers must make themselves available to their colleagues. If the employee’s request does not fall within the scope of his duties, he must try to find appropriate solutions. Perfect managers don’t just lead their people, they coach and guide them to achieve better results. This sentence indicates flight and lack of skills.
“Your colleague is doing better than you or Behold, your colleague is doing it perfectly”
Of course, some employees perform better than others. The comparison, however, does not lead to much. It must be taken into account that the ability to assimilate varies from one person to another. This implies that some may be delayed in completing their missions. In order to achieve the company’s goals, managers must find ways adapted to the needs of each employee. Praise is often a source of development, but never comparison.
“We messed up because of you, you’re trash”
In case of mistakes, openly blaming the employee is rarely positive. If the culprit recognizes his mistakes, his superiors must try to analyze the situation and determine the sources of the failure in order to find an appropriate solution. Of course, in a professional environment, you have to put your feelings aside. Wrongly placed sentences, however, really risk hurting employees and demotivating them.
“The door is wide open, the company is not holding you back”
The threat leads to nothing. You need to show your employees that the company needs them so that they feel responsible. A relationship of trust and complicity must be established between managers and their subordinates.
“I don’t care about your moods!”
Such a sentence reflects complete disdain for the employee and it will be difficult to ask them to get involved later.
“I can’t do anything, it’s a crisis”
Blaming an external factor is never the right solution and for 10 years everything has been blamed on the crisis and why not Voltaire…
And as a final exercise, try to transform your negative sentences into positive sentences. Praise is a characteristic of a manager, executive or leader who knows how to lead his teams towards their engagement and giving their best. Negative sentences reflect a state of mind that establishes a pyramidal hierarchy that should no longer apply in human relationships.