March Article

Employee Appreciation Day

 

Employee Appreciation Day is usually the first Friday of March. The purpose of this day is for the leader to recognize the hard work and effort of all employees in the company.  A lot of companies will organize different activities to show appreciation to their employees, such as BBQ, office parties, treats, or lucky draws. The upcoming Employee Appreciation Day is on March 5, 2021.

​

It is important to understand how to be a good leader to foster high morale among employees for the company to succeed.  ‘Lifehack’ and ‘Atman Co.’ stated the characteristics of a bad leader:

1. Conflict Avoidance – which leads from a small conflict to a serious situation.

2. Abusing their power instead of empower others – When title begins to go to their heads, it can cause the focus to shift from team empowerment to boosting their own feeling of self-worth.

3. Lack of Flexibility – good leaders know when and how to adapt their management style based on their understanding of their employees, but often bad leaders only adopt one management style and usually is the authoritative style.

4. My-Way-or-the-Highway Mindset – Arrogance and inflexible leaders only have His/her way. Usually difficult to accept one self’s weaknesses.

5. Rationalizing Poor or Unethical Conduct – Rationalize bad behaviours or unethical practices from themselves because of some short-term gain.

6. Fail to see the strengths of their team – only criticize instead of identifying potentials in others.

7. Never take accountability – Self-centred leaders takes credit for successes and place blame on others for the failures.

8. Just don’t listen – Only listen to those they preferred but not giving enough time and effort to listen to others. As well, listening requires self-awareness, but usually bad leaders just don’t do that.

 

Learning the above characteristics helps to reflect on how to thrive to be a good leader.

​

Parents' Reflection

 

In fact, being a parent is just like being a leader. When your child is young, they look up to you as their model. When your child grows up as a teenager, they look for a good leader to follow.

​

Think about the 8 characteristics of a bad leader mentioned above, are you a good leader? Bad leader?

1. Conflict Avoidance – did you try not to talk things out with your teenager hoping that things will figure out itself? Fixing small conflict and talk that out will help not to accumulate into serious issues that no one is willing to tackle.

2. Abusing your power instead of empower your teens – did you feel that because I am your mom, I am your dad, you need to follow what I told you to do? Are you trying to provide support and encouragement in order to empower your teens to explore and try things out to build up their self-confidence?

3. Lack of flexibility – are you using your authoritative parenting style? are you just one size fits all when doing parenting? Are you raising each of your children according to their strengths and weaknesses? Every child is unique and highlighting their strengths can help them develop their sense of self-worth, while addressing their weaknesses in a respectful way can help them learn self discipline.

4. My-Way-or-the-Highway Mindset – Are you feeling that your way is the best way? Are you thinking that you have more experiences than your child has, which makes you right? Are you not admitting your mistakes? Admitting your mistakes in fact can help make you more approachable and human.

5. Rationalizing Poor or Unethical Conduct – Are you trying to rationalize your wrongdoings? Are you willing to recognize and admit your wrongdoings? Are you able to be honest without finding excuses? Being honest is an act of respect to your child. Moreover, it is a great role model for your child to learn to be an honest person.

6. Fail to see the strengths of their child – are you only criticizing your child instead of identifying their potentials? Are you always giving out negative comments to your child? Providing praise to your child is important for their development of self confidence.

7. Never take accountability – Are we as parents not taking accountability for our mistakes? When things are not going right, are we putting the blame on our child? Taking accountability as a parent helps the child to learn to be a responsible person, to be a person with integrity.

8. Just don’t listen – Do we as parents actually listen to what our child is telling us? Do we only pick those that we want to hear and ignore those that we do not agreed with? Listening is not only with our ears, but with all our senses, especially with our heart. Being an active listener helps to recognize your child’s perspectives and feelings, and helps us to appreciate them. This is an act of respect.

 

In fact, both employers/supervisors and parents are leaders and role models to others.  In order to establish a trustful relationship and achieve successful outcomes, a leader should empower their employees or children by being a good leader with the following characteristics: INTEGRITY, RESPECT, ACTIVE LISTENING, ACCOUNTABILITY, FLEXIBILITY, ACKNOWLEGEMENT and APPRECIATION.