3 Traits of Accessible Leaders

That structure extends to direct communication, but it is also reflected in meetings. Intentional meetings follow a routine like a three-act play. You receive updates from your employee on what they are working on, you ask how you can provide clarity to them on important tasks, and you ask what decisions they need from you and/or express the decisions they have made.

3. They are proactive. Structure is the foundation that leads to a leader who can be proactive instead of reactive. In large part, leadership is not about your IQ — it is about your EQ, emotional intelligence and how you can connect with all the human parts.

By looking for opportunities to engage and energize employees, often by getting out of the corner office and walking around to talk with everyone, a leader can be more in tune with their office culture and environment and anticipate where they are needed most.

Why It Matters

Being an accessible leader is the ideal, but not everyone operates that way at first. When you aren’t accessible, your business can quickly grow away from you and what you envision for it. Here are the three negative effects that result from being inaccessible:

Negative Office Culture. If you don’t lead your culture, it will grow without you and you may not like where it ends up. Enough said.

High Staff Turnover. People quit bosses more than they quit jobs. They want to be encouraged and led. When they don’t receive that, they will look for a place that provides it.

Poor Business Management. When you don’t stay in touch with what’s happening in your business, you lose the pulse of client and employee relationships. Becoming more accessible means you’re more aware of what’s happening day in and day out.

Get Started

If you feel like you aren’t naturally engaging with your employees, there are three simple ways to get started on the path to proactive and accessible leadership.

Create a recurring 1:1 meeting to make sure you periodically engage. This meeting does not have to be held each week, but it does need to be regular. Meetings can be short, too — a 15-minute check-in is usually enough until you get the hang of it.

Develop an others-first attitude. Ask “how can I help?” more often than any other questions when communicating with your staff.

Invest in your people. Your team isn’t on the balance sheet, but they are your biggest investment. Investing your time in each person of your team will return, and that’s a small amount of time to get the return on investment your people often can make.

At the end of the day, we put time into what we value. If you value your people, you will make spending time on them a priority, and if you do, you will see the benefits.

Jarrod Upton is chief operating officer and senior consultant at Herbers & Company. He brings over 16 years of experience in management strategy, client experience and operations consulting to advisory firms. He can be reached at [email protected].