How to Be Both Respected and Influential with Employees at the Same Time

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Every manager dreams of influencing their employees so they can achieve the organization’s goals—and at the same time being respected by their people. In other words, influence and respect are two sides of the same coin: each reinforces the other and together they accelerate the achievement of organizational objectives. Of course, combining these two ideals is challenging, because an excessive focus on targets often leads to employee dissatisfaction, tension, and damaged relationships. Yet one of the great skills of successful leaders is their ability to achieve both simultaneously.

◽️ 1. Discover your own leadership style One of the most important things a leader can do is develop self‑awareness and identify their personal leadership style. Whether you lead your team through technical expertise or through charisma and personal presence, clarity about your approach helps employees trust you and respect your leadership.

◽️ 2. Be genuinely caring—and show it Nothing destroys a manager’s influence and respect faster than indifference toward employees. When leaders show kindness, empathy, and appreciation, this behavior gradually becomes part of the organizational culture, making employees naturally loyal and supportive.

◽️ 3. Expand your knowledge as much as possible The more a manager understands the organization’s environment and challenges, the better their decisions will be. Strong knowledge and insight increase a leader’s credibility and elevate their status in the eyes of employees.

◽️ 4. Invest in yourself Great leaders are lifelong learners. By continuously acquiring new skills and knowledge, they invest in their own growth. The logic is simple: the more a leader knows, the more effectively they can support their team—and being helpful naturally increases their popularity and respect.

◽️ 5. Manage your personal brand As the leader of an organization, you must actively manage your reputation. By gathering feedback from customers and stakeholders, you can strengthen the image and credibility of the organization you represent.

◽️ 6. Focus on the future A manager’s primary responsibility is to concentrate on what must be done in the future. Analysis of past performance should be delegated to other team members. The art of great leaders lies in envisioning the future and aligning the organization’s energy toward long‑term goals. A leader should not spend excessive time on daily operational issues but instead guide the organization toward its broader vision.

10 Mistakes Managers Unintentionally Make That Demoralize Their Teams

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Managing a team requires a combination of technical, communication, and psychological skills. A good manager must not only understand organizational strategies but also be able to manage the emotions and motivations of their team. However, even managers with the best intentions sometimes unintentionally make mistakes that weaken team morale and reduce productivity. Here are ten key factors that can demoralize a team.

🔺 Micromanaging instead of empowering This management style—where the manager monitors every step of the work—destroys employees’ sense of ownership and reduces motivation. Instead of checking daily details, review only the overall progress.

🔺 Excessive positivity and ignoring real problems Managers often avoid discussing real issues to keep morale high, but overly positive thinking can make employees feel their challenges are being dismissed, leading to frustration.

🔺 Poor prioritization and creating unnecessary anxiety Managers who present all tasks as equally urgent and important unintentionally create stress and confusion within the team.

🔺 Failing to appreciate employees’ efforts Many managers focus solely on results and forget to acknowledge the hard work behind them. This leads to employees feeling unseen and undervalued, which lowers motivation.

🔺 Lack of clear expectations and performance follow‑up When employees don’t know what is expected of them, disengagement and reduced productivity naturally follow.

🔺 Disconnect between feedback and key job skills When feedback is vague, unfair, or overly critical, employees feel worthless and unsure how to improve. Feedback should be tied to essential job skills and include practical suggestions.

🔺 Inconsistent and non‑transparent decision‑making When decisions change suddenly without clear reasoning, employees lose trust in the organization and are more likely to leave. Managers should explain the logic behind decisions and involve employees in important choices.

🔺 Ignoring employees’ need to be heard Many managers don’t truly listen to their employees or take their suggestions seriously. When employees feel their voice doesn’t matter, their connection to the organization weakens.

🔺 Constantly changing goals When employees work on a project for a long time and management suddenly shifts direction, they feel their efforts have been wasted. Before changing course, managers should clearly explain why the change is necessary.

🔺 Lack of emotional intelligence and failure to understand employees’ feelings Listening to feedback, showing empathy, and adopting a supportive approach build trust and create a constructive environment where morale and productivity rise.

How to Earn Employees’ Trust and Loyalty

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When you enter the Lankford Sysco facility just a few kilometers off Ocean City Road in Maryland, you might not immediately feel that you’ve stepped into a special workplace—but within seconds, you begin to sense that something is different.

🔹 First, an unfamiliar smell reaches you—a mix of raw food and machine oil. As you walk further inside, you find yourself surrounded by neatly arranged shelves and moving plastic conveyor belts. After a few minutes, the environment becomes more familiar as you learn about the company’s history through the photos on the walls and the informational displays. You begin to feel a sense of comfort being there.

🔹 When we sit down with the company’s CEO, Stanley Lankford, we realize just how unique this organization is. Employees genuinely love their workplace. Absenteeism and tardiness are astonishingly low. Complaints about working conditions are virtually nonexistent. Everyone works wholeheartedly because they feel a sense of ownership. Customers, too, are extremely satisfied with the company.

🔹 We asked the CEO how such an atmosphere is created. He pointed to the company’s innovative programs, performance‑based reward systems, and comprehensive support for employees during difficult times. As a result of these initiatives, all 840 workers and staff members feel a strong sense of workplace happiness, and it is rare for anyone to leave the company.

🔹 Such ideal workplaces—where employees work with passion and commitment—exist around the world. But the real question is: what must be done to create an environment where everything aligns and employees genuinely enjoy their work?

🔹 Experience shows that employee satisfaction inevitably leads to customer satisfaction. When employees are happy and productive, they produce the best products and services, which in turn increases the number of loyal, long‑term customers.

🔹 But here comes the subtle and difficult question: Should companies retain talented employees solely through financial incentives and performance‑based rewards? In reality, high‑performing employees often complete their tasks efficiently and routinely. Over time, they become accustomed to financial rewards, and these incentives lose their motivational power.

🔹 The truth is that once the financial needs of talented employees are met, managers must focus on their most sensitive and essential need: trust. Leaders must demonstrate that they fully trust these skilled employees and can confidently delegate important responsibilities to them.

Take New Employee Onboarding Seriously

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Stephen Robbins writes in Managing People: All new recruits in the Navy must complete a mandatory multi‑week onboarding program at a naval training camp.

🔹 The purpose of this onboarding period is to test the commitment and sense of responsibility of newly hired individuals. During this time, Navy instructors also make the specific conditions and rules of working in the force more tangible for newcomers.

🔹 Starbucks follows a similar—though simpler—approach by training all new employees through a 24‑hour onboarding program. This program is designed to familiarize them with the company’s goals, create a shared language among employees, and introduce the details of working at Starbucks.

🔹 Taking onboarding seriously is essential because no matter how well you conduct the hiring process or how carefully you select the right candidates, you cannot expect new employees to immediately understand your organizational culture or perform at their full potential from day one.

🔹 To design an effective onboarding program, you must make decisions about four key elements:

◽️ 1. Should the onboarding be formal or informal?

◽️ 2. Should it be conducted individually for each new hire, or as a group for all newly hired employees?

◽️ 3. Should onboarding be incidental—meaning the new hire simply joins existing employees and learns through exposure—or structured, meaning the new hire begins their job while you gradually introduce them to others and to the organization?

◽️ 4. Should the onboarding program include a final evaluation or not? In other words, do you want to assess the new employee at the end of the program?

🔹 In general, onboarding programs that are formal, group‑based, structured, and include a final evaluation tend to be more effective and reduce the likelihood of future misunderstandings between you and your new employee.

Persuasion Through Creating Confusion

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Kevin Hogan writes in The 53 Principles of Persuasion: Confusion causes people significant discomfort, and a confused person is willing to do almost anything to escape that painful feeling.

🔹 In fact, when people become confused, they abandon logic and reasoning. Just like someone who is drowning, they grab onto anything they can find in hopes of being saved.

🔹 For this reason, if we can rescue someone from a state of confusion, we gain tremendous influence over them and can easily impose our viewpoint.

🔹 I would even go a step further and say: to persuade others, first confuse them—then be the one who pulls them out of that confusion.

🔹 The most common method for creating confusion is the “information overload” technique. In this approach, you continue giving the other person so much information that they lose the ability to analyze it.

🔹 This method is especially effective when the person is genuinely interested in the information and welcomes receiving more of it.

🔹 For example, imagine a salesperson who, while explaining the benefits of a product, hands the customer a brochure. A moment later—while the customer is flipping through the brochure—the salesperson shows several photos of satisfied customers who purchased the product. Then, they play a short video demonstrating how the product works.

🔹 Given the limits of human mental capacity, this approach creates cognitive turbulence and confusion, preventing the customer from thinking logically. As a result, they become more susceptible to your reasoning and are likely to accept almost anything you say.

How Do Toxic Employees Grow in the Workplace?

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A combination of three negative personality traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—is often found in individuals who engage in undesirable workplace behaviors such as manipulation, exploitation, and bullying. Despite their destructive tendencies, these individuals often succeed in job interviews and rise to managerial positions because of their charm, confidence, and apparent leadership skills.

◀️ Soft and Hard Tactics

🔹 Individuals with the “Dark Triad” use both soft tactics (such as persuasion and social bonding) and hard tactics (such as manipulation and pressure) to achieve their goals. On the surface, they may use humor or compliments to gain trust, but ultimately they exploit relationships for personal gain.

◀️ Why Do These Individuals Advance?

▪️ Attractive traits: They initially appear confident and strong leaders. ▪️ Lack of deep assessment: Short hiring processes fail to reveal their negative traits. ▪️ Power-seeking behavior: They use hard tactics to climb organizational hierarchies.

◀️ What’s the Solution?

To prevent such individuals from gaining influence, organizations must look beyond initial charm and conduct thorough, long‑term assessments of personality and behavior. Additionally, building a culture of transparency and accountability helps identify and limit toxic behaviors.

Employees’ Rights and Needs Are Not Just About Money!

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Compensation is not the only right employees receive in exchange for working in an organization. An employment contract is both a formal and psychological agreement between employees and the organization. According to this agreement, employees are assigned certain duties, and in return for fulfilling these responsibilities, they receive salary and benefits.

🔹 Every individual working in an organization has certain rights, and in recent years, the most important of these rights have been outlined in documents known as the Employee Rights Charter. The content of this charter varies from one organization to another, but here are some common examples:

▪️ Employees have the right to work in a calm and safe environment that enables them to provide effective and valuable services.

▪️ Employees have the right to be treated respectfully by managers and customers.

▪️ Employees have specific rights regarding their mental and physical safety.

▪️ Employees have the right to autonomy in performing their duties within the framework of organizational rules.

▪️ Employees have the right to express opinions, offer suggestions, and provide constructive criticism to help improve the organization’s performance.

▪️ Employees have the right to participate in organizational decision‑making processes that support the mission and goals of the company.

▪️ Employees have the right to job security.

▪️ Employees have the right to have their work‑related issues and concerns addressed by senior management.

▪️ Employees have the right to use various types of leave, including annual paid leave, sick leave, and hourly leave.

▪️ Employees have the right to receive necessary training related to new developments in their professional field.

🔹 Although these are not all the rights employees are entitled to, even a portion of these essential rights is not fully implemented—or faces major challenges—in many Iranian organizations and companies.

◀️ Nevertheless, organizations must recognize that respecting employee rights significantly increases motivation, enhances performance, and encourages employees to stay with the organization.

“How to Persuade a Group

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Kevin Hogan writes in The 53 Principles of Persuasion: Persuading a group of people is certainly more difficult than persuading a single individual, because each member of a group has their own background, way of thinking, and personal beliefs—which may sometimes be completely opposite to those of another member. As a result, anything you say may be pleasant to one person and irritating to another.

🔹 With this important reality in mind, you can use two main strategies to persuade a group:

◽️ 1. Speak ambiguously

In this strategy, you must act like politicians—talk a lot without actually saying anything specific.

🔹 Essentially, you express your message in a way that allows each member of the group to interpret it according to their own preferences.

🔹 For example, imagine a politician saying during a campaign: “Our social security system needs fundamental reform. It’s time to take major steps toward improving people’s well‑being.”

🔹 This statement has no concrete meaning on its own. It’s unclear what kind of reforms are intended or in which direction. Will employees pay more insurance contributions? Or will their contribution rates decrease?

🔹 As a result, each listener imagines the type of reform they personally prefer.

◽️ 2. Show up as a human being

People want to see you as a human—someone like themselves—not just a manager, salesperson, or authority figure.

🔹 They want to know that you, like all humans, sometimes feel lonely, sometimes happy, and sometimes sad.

🔹 In short, they want to see a real person in front of them, not a manufactured persona. So to influence a group, be your authentic self and openly share your feelings, experiences, knowledge, and beliefs.

🔹 When you show up as an ordinary human being, your audience sees you as honest and trustworthy. As a result, they feel closer to you and become more willing to accept your ideas.

Why Is the United States the Hub of Technology and Major Corporations?

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Jeff Bezos believes that America’s success comes from its high tolerance for risk. He says the United States thrives because founders can raise $50 million even with only a 10% chance of success.

🔹 The point is not just talent—it’s the fact that in the U.S., investing in ideas that might fail is culturally accepted.

🔹 Europe and many other parts of the world also have plenty of talent and ideas, but what they often lack is the courage to invest in big, uncertain bets. Any country that wants to compete in fields like artificial intelligence or biotechnology must be willing to invest in high‑risk, high‑reward ideas.

🔹 America’s entrepreneurial advantage lies in a culture that rewards big risks and views failure as a natural part of innovation. Success is not driven solely by talent or ideas, but by access to venture capital and a mindset that supports bold, transformative visions.