Do your employees feel respected?

Feeling appreciated by superiors is the No. 1 leadership trait, according to a recent survey. Two studies by management professors help us understand why.

Professor of Management Blake Ashforth and his co-author found that creating a gracious environment is a matter of balancing two kinds of reverence. In another study, Ashforth and his co-authors found that receiving respect at work helps individuals engage in positive identity transformation and improves how they adapt to their work and organization.

In this article from the July-August 2018 issue of the Harvard Business Review:

One of the subtler challenges in creating a respectful atmosphere is finding the right balance between the two types of respect. As Arizona State University’s Blake Ashforth and I wrote in a recent paper, an imbalance can create frustration for workers.&nbsp

My research with Blake Ashforth and Arizona State University’s Kevin Corley highlights this experimentation and finds that feeling respected at work validates those trial behaviors, helping employees go from thinking “this feels odd” to believing “maybe this is really me” and cementing their personal growth.&nbsp