I want to be a more popular boss, but I’m not sure how. To be honest, I’m not even sure what my staff have problems with. I know I’m a good leader. I pay my staff above market average, and don’t force them to do too much overtime. I even don’t mind stepping in and moving projects along myself when I see they need help. I also hired a consultancy company in New York to help me develop the business so that my team doesn’t need to feel as if all the pressure is on them.

But even after everything I did, my staff don’t seem happy. Some of our clients have told me that they’ve overheard my team gossiping about me in public. I also reviewed the office internet records and it seems that some of my senior staff are visiting online job boards. And once when I logged in to the office CCTV system during the day, I saw my team in an unscheduled meeting in one of the conference rooms.

I haven’t confronted my team about any of this as I don’t want to appear weak. But I somehow want to present myself differently so they trust me more as a leader and commit even stronger to the company. What are the tricks of the trade?