Never Had Employees Before? Here’s a Crash Course on Leadership

July 31, 2019

Whether you’re growing a promising startup or simply need some helpers to assist your workloads, the prospect of hiring employees can be daunting especially if you’ve never been in a position of leadership before. So in this post, we’re going to offer you a brief crash course on leadership and some important points to consider before you’re stuck with employees that refuse to listen to you.

Start small and build relationships

Until you’re a company with hundreds of employees, you have no excuse not to talk with your employees. This is a fantastic way to get to know your team, their strengths and also build a strong and trusting relationship which can improve your coordination and teamwork. The goal here is to talk less and listen to your employees by investing time in their skills, understanding their motivations and also adapting their personalities to the workplace.

Understand their rights

It’s also important to look at articles on employees entitlement to ensure that you’re giving them the rights and benefits they deserve. This means things like holiday pay, break time and other similar benefits that will help your employees feel valued in the workplace instead of extorted. Eventually, you’ll need to put together a human resources department in order to manage these considerations more easily and to give your employees a way to speak to you about these types of concerns.

Focus on your office culture

If you’ve got a workplace then you need to establish an office culture that fits your needs. For instance, you need to think about how you can set a good example and lead with it, and you also need to establish your own integrity to help define your style of leadership and have your team adapt to the way your company works. This involves being honest, truthful and also respectful to your team.

Be patient with your employees

New employees will find it difficult to adapt to the flow of your workplace so it’s important to be patient and give your employees time to learn how your company works. This is especially important if you’re trying to establish a positive and sustainable company culture because it can change quite sporadically depending on how many employees you have and the direction you want to guide your team on. Just keep in mind that different employees will adapt at different rates to your business. An experienced worker will easily be able to fit their skills to your needs, but inexperienced employees will need a bit of time and encouragement.

Learn to trust your employees

One of the biggest mistakes in leadership is trying to micromanage all of your employees. Not only does this waste your time, but it doesn’t help to build a trusting and professional relationship with your team and can make it difficult for your employees to get any work done in an efficient manner. As a result, you’ll want to trust your employees after any initial training you put them through and give them a chance to show that they’re capable of acting on their own and making decisions that benefit your business.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

Learn podcasting
in your own time

Listen to the
free podcast

The free, thrice-weekly show that brings you podcast education, industry insights & straight-talking reactions to podcasting news. This short-form show typically runs for between 7 and 15 minutes and releases every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Usually a solo show, every now and then, the show features expert podcast industry guests and release bonus episodes as the podcast industry continues to grow and develop.