Being the boss that your employees love to work for isn't always as easy as it sounds. While you may think you're doing a great job, and your employees seem happy and satisfied, there is a difference between being a good boss, and being a boss that employees genuinely want to work for.

Becoming a good leader doesn't happen over night. You'll learn from your employees along with experiences from different scenarios that will mold you into a better boss over time. Today we want to talk about five ways you can start working towards becoming the boss that you'd love to work for yourself.

How to Become a Better Boss for Your Optometric Practice

Lead by Example

Whatever you're expecting and asking for from your team, they should be expecting the same from you in return. Being able to demonstrate things like effective communicatioon and teamwork will help your entire office collaborate effectively in the times when you're not around. Being a good leader also means respecting your employees' time, and expecting the same in return for your own time. Showing up to meetings on time and asking for the same time commitments from everyone will help keep things fair and honest across the team.

Build Trust

Building trust and respect between you and your employees will help your professional relationship grow with each person. Keeping a level playing field and treating your team like colleagues and experts instead of disposable resources will help maintain those healthy relationships. Building trust and strong relationships will likely leak into effective collaboration around the office, leading to stronger results overall. 

Empower Your Team

Micro-managing your employees day-to-day can get tiring for everyone. Part of being a good boss is hiring the right, experienced people for the job and then empowering them with the tools and resources they need to take care of the responsibilities on their own. Letting employees take the lead on certain tasks and allowing them to own and be the expert in your optical sales or billing and insurance tasks will make them feel valued. Empowering your team to make decisions and grow their skills will create a stronger office all around.

Focus on Positivity

Imagine coming to work every day to work for a boss who consistently has a negative outlook. It would be exhausting. A positive attitude is contagious and is especially important in a work environment where patients are always present. A negative attitude in your office will be noticed by patients, making it that much more important to set the tone for everyone in your office. Positivity, enthusiasm, and confidence are all traits you want to spread throughout everyone in your eyecare practice.

Show Gratitude

Employee recognition is an important piece of employee satisfaction in the work place. As a leader, it's important to give praise and recognition to employees when it's due. In a recent survey, when asked what leaders could do more of to improve employee engagement, 58% of respondents replied with "give recognition". When it comes to showing gratitude in your eyecare practice there are plenty of ways to do it. Check out this infographic for a list of unique ideas for rewarding employees.