Being a good boss means establishing good communication with your employees. It means being open and honest with them, respecting them and their efforts. It means doing what you can to help them succeed. It means creating an atmosphere of trust and teamwork.

There are many ways to create a good work atmosphere, and ways to poison the atmosphere as well. As a supervisor, what you say to your employees obviously carries a lot of weight, and what you say can help or hurt your team’s efforts. Keeping that in mind, there a few kinds of thoughtless remarks often uttered by supervisors that really do a lot more harm than good, and they should be avoided. Here a few of them.

1. “You really are fortunate just to have a job here.”

This is threatening and condescending. You say something like this when you want to intimidate someone, and that’s never a good way to create a productive work atmosphere. Research has clearly shown that trying to lead by instilling fear in your employees never works well. No one is going to give you their best effort when they are constantly fearful of a reprimand or losing their job.

2. “That’s just the way it is.”

A statement like this give the impression that the status quo rules, that change is really frowned upon. Moreover, it gives the impression that things are done this way simply because they have always been done this way, without giving any thought to why this particular way of doing things is so important. It is simply an indication of a hidebound, unthinking mentality.

3. “It’s not my fault.”

As a leader, you need to set a good example. And that means when you make a mistake, you need to admit it. By trying to deny it you simply lost the respect of your employees. A true leader has the strength to admit when he or she is wrong, because it truly takes more leadership qualities to admit an error.

4. “You really don’t need to know about that.”

Trying to keep information from your employees is poor management. The best leaders are open and honest with their employees. They try to create an atmosphere of trust and transparency because ultimately this fosters greater productivity.

If you are looking for employees in the New York City area, Winston Resources, one of the top staffing agencies in the city, can help your company fill positions in a variety of areas. Give us a call today.