Frontline Supervisor Imperative: Be Encouraging to Others

Think about a moment of hardship in your life.

Now, think about that situation and how it would have been completely different if someone said the exact right thing you needed to hear in this moment of need. Encouragement is a simple yet incredibly influential method of helping another person change their outlook.

Alfred Adler, a famous psychotherapist, began analyzing encouragement in the 1950s and discovered that human beings have an innate desire to belong and contribute to a social group. However, when we lose interest, it’s due to feeling or perceiving discouragement. This also happens in the workplace.

We’ve arrived at the fourth and final imperative for supervisor success: be encouraging to others. In the previous blog, we examined the supervisor’s role in reducing stress. We found that supervisors could create stressful and anxiety-inducing environments if they lack proper training and time to do their jobs. Utilizing all four imperatives, supervisors can make a dramatic impact on retaining great talent and leading a high-performing team.

The Fourth Imperative: Be Encouraging to Others

Encouragement has become more important to employees due to three significant factors:

• The effects of the Pandemic have forever changed how we interact personally and professionally.
• An entirely new generation of remote employees is entering the workforce and finding that they have unique needs as they adapt to a post-Covid world.
• Customer emotions have increased and are a constant challenge for customer service agents.

A combination of these three factors has led to increased feelings of self-doubt, which can create disconnection in the workplace and ultimately lead to resignation.

Why Is Encouragement So Important?

When done right, encouragement can be a powerful tool to reverse negative feelings and reduce employee churn. However, this supportive sentiment cannot be done broadly. A genuine human interaction must occur, which is why supervisors are in the best position to praise, support, and encourage the individuals they manage daily.

In fact, the highest-performing organizations have supervisors and team members who consistently encourage each other. However, this doesn’t happen by accident and is developed through dedicated training. When time and commitment are established for leadership roles, strong working relationships can be built. A great manager knows that they are leading a team of human beings, and how to connect on a personal level. This relationship helps a supervisor better understand employee perspectives and offer the necessary support in any challenging situation.

What Steps Can a Supervisor Take to Encourage their team?

The goal of workplace encouragement is to instill courage, boost confidence, and maintain positive mindsets, and behaviors. A manager can accomplish this by utilizing the following tips:

1. Have genuine interactions with team members and take the time to develop strong interpersonal relationships. It may seem obvious, but smiling, laughter, and humor are the easiest ways to generate positive feelings during these connections.
2. Use reflective listening during your conversations with team members. This means focusing on the speaker's words, tone of voice, and non-verbal cues and then reflecting it back to them as accurately as possible.
3. Communicate and share feedback with your team. Pointing out strengths and learning to reframe situations from negative to positive can be great learning opportunities.

Final Thoughts

For encouragement to be profound it needs to be consistent. Steady support and praise will inspire team members to overcome challenges and work harder. Encouragement is just one of four imperatives that supervisors can utilize to become more effective leaders. Our four-part blog series is just the first step to strengthening your leadership team. To learn more about helping your supervisor succeed connect with our team.