Each of us carry several roles during our life and choosing the appropriate role is crucial in every situation. In current context, role clarity means knowing what your role as an employer is all about. Being aware of your own role and carrying it out at work is a prerequisite for your staff’s role clarity. This is essential for effective performance of your team, where everyone’s contribution makes a difference, including yours.
As a HRM consultant, new employers contact me with many practical questions about labor legislation, necessary contracts, insurances, employment related costs. It is very important for you to know enough about all of these subjects in order to manage your employment relationships. Still taking care of all of those topics covers only a small part of your new role.

Shortly after becoming an employer often the levels of pressure and frustration of people rise. You may feel like your employees:

• don’t live up to the expectations you have towards them and don’t perform as expected
• don’t appreciate the great opportunity they were offered from you to work for you
• don’t obey you or follow your instructions as they should or are not happy with your efforts to please them and make them feel comfortable

To avoid such unpleasant feelings, confusion and sooner or later rising conflicts between you and your employees, you might want to take a time out and think a bit.

• What do you do in order to ensure your employees know what your expectations are and even more important, how do you do this?
• What are the characteristics that make your organization the greatest place to work? How do you communicate those to your employees?
• List the differences in your behavior when you’re at work with your employees and during leisure time with your friends.

To summarize the above – get to know yourself! Either on your own or with the help of a business coach.

As Donna Ronayne posted in TalentSpace Blog, getting to know ourselves requires some humility because only with humility we are able to honestly admit to ourselves, what are our strengths, weaknesses and limitations. When we become acquainted to ourselves, it becomes possible for us to also develop the appropriate role behavior and communicate with our employees according to the norms and expectations of this role. And this role only. When you know that what you do and how you behave are right and help you achieve your desired goals, your self-confidence increases and you will become a good role model and a motivator for your employees.

Then later, after work hours, when you go together to gym or bar or walk your dogs, please again remember to change your role as then you are not an employer any more. Until next time you meet in a work situation.

By Mari Kuljus