Written by: Steven Howard, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
No one wakes up and says, "I cannot wait to be managed today." And certainly, no one says, "I cannot wait to be micromanaged by my boss today."
People do not want to be managed. They want to be led. To be motivated. Trusted. Given opportunities to grow their skill sets and decision-making capabilities.
They want (and need) to be coached, mentored, empowered, unshackled from directives, and freed from being told how to accomplish their work. Leaders now need to excel at the coaching and people development aspects of leadership.
Employees want (and need) four things to be successful in today's workplaces:
To be respected and trusted.
To be accepted for who they authentically are.
To be included in discussions and decisions, especially regarding implementing strategies determined by senior leaders.
To have responsibilities and assignments that lead to personal and professional growth.
All of these are human wants. Leaders who ensure that these four things are readily ubiquitous in their workplaces will build employee engagement, loyalty, and trust.
Trust is the foundation
One lesson from the pandemic: people want greater human connection. Leaders need to also excel at the human connection aspect of leadership. That connection starts with trust.
Trust is foundational to leadership. If a leader is not trusted by the people they lead – and their colleagues and peers – nothing else they do matters. You cannot be an optimal leader if you are not trusted.
Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of trust in the workplace place today. Surveys consistently show that over half of employees do not trust their employer. For example, a study by Davis Associates revealed that 57% of employees have little or no trust in their leaders. A similar survey from EY showed that less than half of employees (46%) placed "a great deal of trust" in their employers, while 15% indicated they had very little or no trust at all in their employers. The remaining 39% said they have "some trust" in their employers, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement of their leadership.
Unfortunately, the lack of trust in the workplace is a two-way street. The lack of trust in employees by their managers reduces inclusion, productivity, innovation, and results. A study by the Workforce Institute found that a lack of trust by bosses directly impacts how employees have a sense of belonging (64%), their career choices (58%), and their mental health (55%). Additionally, 24% of the survey respondents said they had left a company because they did not feel trusted. I suspect this figure is higher for the millions who are part of the Great Resignation.
That same survey shared how employees believe managers can earn higher levels of trust: being dependable (52%), being honest (34%), actively listening (28%), providing helpful feedback (25%), and caring about employee wellbeing (22%).
The top five factors influencing the lack of trust in bosses globally were:
Is not open or transparent in communication
Is not appreciative / does not provide recognition or praise for a job well done
Does not communicate with me enough
Does not value my point of view
Does not make wise business decisions
As you can see, poor communication and ineffective feedback are at the heart of mistrust. Asking questions and actively listening to others are trust-building behaviors. People are more willing to trust you when you ask for their input and know you will listen to their ideas, suggestions, issues, and concerns.
Lead with trust
Another thing damaging trust in the workplace is the increased use of tracking systems used to monitor remote workers. Such systems simply destroy trust.
Here is another key. Do not tell your team members, "Here is how you earn my trust." Start with trust and advise them on what it takes to lose your trust.
When you shift your mindset from that of a boss (manager) to being a leader, your relationship changes from oversight to trust. And you strengthen the human connection aspect of leadership.
Is your workplace full of the Working Dead? Those unmotivated, unhappy, disengaged employees who did not leave and join the Great Resignation? What are you going to do with them? How are you going to light a fire under them? And if they remain entrenched, will your managers and leaders become disgruntled and dismayed enough to walk out the door at the first sign of an opportunity for them in another organization?
For many years, Gallup has been measuring workplace engagement. And their results have been very consistent: roughly 85% of employees worldwide are either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" at work. Behind these shocking numbers is poor management, combined with a lack of trust in leadership and a lack of recognition by leaders for the efforts made by employees.
Too many jobs are designed as thankless or meaningless tasks. Meaningless excellence is an oxymoron. Meaningless jobs require no innovation or creativity and often very little thinking. As a result, organizations get what they deserve: disengaged and unengaged workers robotically and unthinkingly performing meaningless and thankless tasks that create nil or little value.
Recognition. Open and transparent communication. Having discussions with team members instead of delivering monologues. Asking for input instead of only giving directives and deadlines. Showing team members how they provide value to the organization as customers. Helping people understand their work truly does have meaning and importance.
This is how you connect with your team members as a manager or leader. This is how you become a successful people-centric leader.
Develop your people – Don't manage them
Work is simply not working for many people. Work and the workplace, along with the behaviors, actions, and attitudes of many leaders, have alienated millions of people worldwide.
Here is the bad news: there is no Old Reality to return to. The role of a manager or leader is no longer to be a task overseer and a reporter of results to senior management. Rather, the role of managers and leaders – at every level of every organization – is to be a people performance coach. To be successful, leaders must become people-centric.
The key is to stop treating employees as only a means to an end. This mindset is contributing to millions of people worldwide quitting their jobs and seeking new employment with organizations that value them as human beings.
There has been a fundamental change in what people value. Work is no longer the most important thing that defines a large portion of the workforce. Working harder and more hours is no longer worth sacrificing health, harmony, personal relationships, and nonwork responsibilities.
This is why I created Humony Leadership. Humony is an invented word comprising human, humanity, and harmony to emphasize the leading of people and the need for leaders to create workplaces of wellbeing and harmony.
Humony is a people-centric approach to leadership. Today's managers and leaders have demonstrated the ability to achieve business goals, but they are not trained to lead or develop people for today's evolving circumstances.
Managers develop jobs and functionalities. Leaders develop people and careers. They develop people through increased responsibilities and assignments. And through coaching and mentoring.
Toss aside the notion that your role as a leader is to get the most out of your people. That is 1990s thinking. It also leads to burnout, health issues, job dissatisfaction, and unmotivated human beings comprising the bulk of your staff. While these have been noticeably present in most workplaces since the 1990s, they escalated significantly during the two-plus years of the pandemic.
Your job as a leader is to put the most into your people! And to reap the benefits and rewards for doing so: increased productivity, employee engagement, a happier workplace climate, and reduced employee attrition. By putting the most into your people, you will get the best out of them. This makes the continuous development of your people – through coaching, mentoring, motivating, and other methods – the number one priority for you as a leader.
The lack of development opportunities has been cited in several research studies as a key factor in the Great Resignation. That is not surprising. Workers are aware of and admittedly concerned about their skill gaps. In a study by PwC of over 32,000 workers around the globe, more than 75% said they want to improve their skills. Another global study, by software company UiPath, of 4500 office workers worldwide revealed that 88% would be more willing to continue working for an organization that offered upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
Unfortunately, according to Gallup's research, only 30% of employees believe their managers and leaders care about their development. If employees are told they have limited choices and their growth is not a priority for the organization, they will leave.
So, how do you become an excellent leader of people development?
First, understand that you are accountable for developing the skills of your team members. Your organization's Human Resources and Talent Development departments are resources for you to use in this endeavor. But it is your responsibility to ensure the continuous development of your team members and yourself, not theirs.
Your Human Resources and Talent Development colleagues should take the lead only on formal training events, including classroom and virtual training programs. But even when they do, you remain responsible and accountable for the execution of these programs.
Continuous development of yourself and your people is one of the most important foundational aspects of building a Humony Climate in your workgroup.
Be a people-centric leader
Being a people-centric leader is not about people over results and profits. That is either/or thinking. This is about people before profits. People before results means people + results. And that equates to long-term, sustainable success.
Putting people first means prioritizing the people aspects – and the people costs – of decisions and actions. Please do not confuse "people costs" with payroll and employee benefit programs. This is not at all what I mean. The people cost I am citing is the toll and impact on your people and your workplace climate resulting from your leadership decisions and actions. Before you make a final decision or initiate action, you should evaluate how these will impact the stress and health of your people and the harmony of your workplace. Think of these issues in terms of both short-term impact and long-term consequences.
You should also evaluate if your people have the right tools, resources, and experience to execute to your desired standards. Likewise, do they have the right skills or the requisite development opportunity available to close any skill gaps? If not, these insufficiencies will undoubtedly cause negative stress and anxiety, thus leading to less-than-optimal performance.
Being people-centric means delivering long-term, sustainable results derived through increased productivity, innovation, creativity, and cooperative collaboration of the team members you lead.
How do you learn more about the core skills required to be a successful people-centric leader? Humony Leadership: Mindsets, Skills, and Behaviors for Being a Successful People-Centric Leader is available globally on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook formats.
Steven Howard, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Steven Howard is the award-winning author of 22 leadership, business, and professional development books. His latest book is Humony Leadership: Mindsets, Skills and Behaviors for Being a Successful People-Centric Leader. In awarding the book a Gold Medal, the Nonfiction Authors Association called Humony Leadership, “a significant work with an important mission.” Steven was named one of the 2023 Top 200 Global Biggest Voices in Leadership by the LeadersHum network in recognition of his thought-provoking and leading-edge thinking on leadership. He was named to the 2023 CREA List of top entrepreneurs, influential leaders, and innovators for his thought leadership and writing.
