Home Health & Hospice Week

Trying to figure out how to spur your home care employees on to new heights? You may only have to look as far as your own supervisory skills.

You can ensure that you are a great supervisor by following these five tenets of excellent leadership:

1. Be accessible. While you may value your privacy and quiet time, an open-door policy is crucial if you want your employees to feel that they can come to you with any problem. Leaving your door open will also ensure that you know about problems as soon as they arise.

Strategy: Don't just wait for your employees to come to you, get out of your office and interact with them. This will help them feel more connected to you and allow you to be a quick resource for them. This is an extra-big challenge, and extracrucial, in the home care work environment.

2. Take interest in your employees. The best bosses go out of their way to make sure every employee feels valued and interesting.

Try this: Find out who your employees are. What makes them interesting? What hidden skills or talents do they possess? What makes them special?

This personal relationship with your employees will build their loyalty to you and to your company.

The conversation doesn't always have to be about you, say leadership experts Mark Sekula and Jeffrey Neidorfler of Kahler Slater Inc. "Occasionally disclose personal information. It will help people understand you better," they say.

3. Personalize your approach. No two employees are the same, so you can't expect to treat everyone the same and get great results.

Think of it this way: "Some of your subordinates need a short leash, some a long leash. Some need lots of freedom to perform best, some prefer structure," says Michael Feiner, author of The Feiner Points Of Leadership.

And you don't have to worry that your new approach will seem "unfair" or "unequal." "Equity comes from giving each subordinate what he needs to perform, even though these needs may be different," Feiner explains.

4. Recognize accomplishments and praise regularly. More often than not, your employees don't think they are praised often enough for all the hard work they perform.

Best approach: You can't over-praise or over-recognize your hard workers. Use multiple methods and every opportunity to show them how much you appreciate their efforts.

Caution: What you can't do is praise mediocre work or recognize every small accomplishment.

Keep your bar set high so that your employees perform to the best of their abilities to reach it.

5. Lead by example. Your actions speak way louder than your words. As the person in charge, your employees are watching you every minute to determine what's acceptable and what's not.

Consider this: When you choose to break the rules that you've set for everyone else, you're teaching your employees that your standards don't mean anything -- and that they don't really need to practice what you preach.