There is no way to overstate how important it is to hire the best leaders for your organization. According to numerous studies of managers and companies, effective leadership boosts organizational performance both internally, such as employee retention, and externally, such as financial performance.

The research show leaders who consciously build trust in their organizations regardless of who they are or their functions, shows that they mostly focus on:

• Involving members of the team in decisions that affect them through the process of soliciting their ideas.
• Recognizing employees, including highlighting achievements and assisting them in moving forward in their career.
• By providing competent, honest, and reliable leadership, employees will feel inspired to follow.

Is it possible for your company to cultivate such leaders?

Determine the key characteristics of great managers for your organization

Almost all organizations have certain essential traits of an effective manager, but the insights are gained by identifying the behaviors that are specific to your organization’s mission, culture, client needs, and strategic goals.

Find out which managers in your organization are capable of building relationships based on trust. You can do so by conducting employee surveys.

You should ask how the managers managed to achieve what they did during your interview.  Determine the top three to five behaviors that create a great working environment and share them with the rest of your organization.

Establish trust

When employees trust their leaders, they follow them. The reason managers are trusted is because they are competent, honest, and reliable.

There are three ways in which you can instill trust in your leadership:

• Be credible: Make sure you follow through on your promises to your employees.
• Show respect: Make sure your people are set up for success. Equip them with the tools to be successful.
• Decide fairly: This is essectial for building trust in your management effectiveness, especially at times of promotion decisions and for people who are different than you (whether gender, racial background or tenure).

Become a true collaborator

Co-create plans and come up with creative solutions with your team.

The goal is not to reach a consensus or make decisions by committee. This is about real collaboration and involvement.

Collaboration may be improved by:

• Your team should be involved in decisions that affect them. Be sure to get their feedback before you make any decisions, such as moving to a new space and addressing any concerns they may have about the move.
• You should seek the opinion of your employees regarding the next issue you wish to tackle.
• Maintaining regular one-to-one conversations and informal gatherings out of the office, such as staffroom lunches and coffee breaks.

The following management behaviors will help your employees feel included and valued, thereby inspiring them to perform at their highest level.

Make employee recognition an important part of your culture.

Recognizing employees’ contributions shows them they are appreciated. Employee recognition is the most important factor in determining employee performance – it outweighs pay, promotions, inspiring work, training, or autonomy.

Among the ways leaders can incorporate recognition into their management rituals are:

• There should be triggers for recognition, such as tangible goals with guidance from management about how to communicate them.
• Providing managers with easy ways to recognize their employees. Hotels such as Hilton give managers an annual “Recognition Calendar”, which offers easy-to-implement ways to acknowledge employees.

Take a second look at how you promote your employees.

You may want to reconsider your promotion process if managing a larger team is the only way to get promoted at your company. An individual contributor or a team member can each be useful to the organization in different ways.

The best companies (and managers) provide employees with multiple ways to succeed. These include:

• By providing new opportunities for people to acquire new responsibilities and develop their skills, we can help them become more effective.
• Assist employees in developing their skills.
• Make sure employees are aware of additional opportunities to contribute to a project or lend their expertise to matters outside of their normal responsibilities.

The traditional performance process needs to be flipped.

While managers often rate and review their employees, they are also encouraged to receive feedback from them. Employee surveys are designed to not just look at organizational culture, but also at management effectiveness.

An employee reflects on the manner in which management treats them as a person, not just as an employee, as well as how much management’s actions match its words. An employee’s feedback provides an authentic picture of management’s effectiveness.