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Being an Accepting Leader
Easier said than done. That’s the reaction I sometimes get when talking with leaders and managers. Working with people can be difficult and frustrating. People make mistakes, get irrational, and need things that seem unrelated to the mission of the business.
So where do you find the acceptance, the caring, the ‘love’? For me, it’s all in the heart. We need to remember that one person is not better than another. We are all born human and all have similar struggles with the human condition. Be careful not to judge, you have not walked in the other’s shoes.
“Fine,” I’ll hear, “but do I have to accept the times when people screw up?” My response is absolutely not. You accept the person, not necessarily their behavior. You would like to see each employee succeed and you are committed to helping them achieve high performance for their own personal success and for the good of the organization. This is why your messages about mistakes will be about the performance and not about the nature of the person.
Your goal is not to be a saint either. You can get annoyed, frustrated, or upset with people. Your emotional reaction can show that they matter and that what they do matters to the business. Your upset is because the business goals are being thwarted, not because they are idiots. And this is what you need to have clear in your heart and in your actions. So if you have been short or cross with someone you have to go back and let them know that you didn’t mean it personally.
If you are a manager and leader, you are probably oriented to outcomes: you want to achieve the mission of your organization. Remember, it is your attachment to those goals that gets you frustrated with people. Part of your growth as a leader is to be committed to the mission and to finding the best ways for people to achieve it. You don’t want to turn into HAL, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, who had to eliminate the spaceship crew because he believed they threatened the mission.
People are much easier to accept when you have a full toolkit for working with them. Learn the six principles; it will work for you and for those you lead.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Acceptance – The Key to Managing and Leading People
Too often business managers and leaders look to workplace programs to create healthy and productive employees. The great ones know something that is foundational and more natural. You can’t build a dynamic employee culture unless you ACCEPT people. So easy to say, but what does it mean?
Great leaders and managers appreciate people and accept that they are human: that they can be irrational and emotional. People aren’t machines and don’t work like them. They don’t just do the assignment as it is asked and sometimes they like to do things their own way. It is almost impossible to lead people if you don’t like them and the way they operate.
Employees read acceptance from their leaders. They look to the smile on your face when you interact with them. The smile conveys that they are appreciated and that they matter to you. The absence of some form of positive affirmation can easily be read as rejection, disinterest, or bad intent. This is what makes the ‘meet and greet’ aspect of leadership so important.
Expressing an interest in employees, both professionally and personally, conveys that you care. People always light up when someone higher up asks them about their job. The simplest question, like, “how is it going?” can really make someone’s day. The sense is that they matter if the boss asks. And if they matter, then they are more likely to give a damn about the work and the company.
A critical piece to the process is that people believe they are wanted, and that they are not being rejected. Fears of rejection haunt even the most stable and solid personalities. Peoples’ brains are wired to look for rejection since avoiding it (developmentally) was a survival skill.
Personal affirmations are incredibly powerful. People remember if their boss noticed and mentioned something they did well. It builds connection and loyalty to the mission.
Remember, as a leader, you want to leave nothing about acceptance/rejection to the imagination of the employee. Some are too prone to expecting rejection or disapproval. You must counter this actively through your interaction (and workplace programs) to build a solid foundation of trust and good will.
People ultimately work for you, not just the mission of the organization. Your personal acceptance makes all the difference.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Working People Need Support and Structure
Evidence for the people side of business exists in successful businesses. The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards program demonstrates that there are many businesses which not only take care of their employees, but also succeed at developing healthy, productive employees. Achieving a work culture that is positive and productive takes leadership and an awareness of the needs of employees.
Organizations are led by people who are usually experts in a technical area and/or have training in business. But there is a third requirement for organizational leadership, skill in the people side of business, which too many leaders lack or are less aware. Taking care of people – and providing adequate structure – is not often trained, is not easily quantified, and is as much art as science.
Consequently that third leg of running a business, the people side, is often short changed, handled “if possible”, and not made a focus of organizational structure. It is a terrible mistake because inadequate effort on this front too often leaves workers dissatisfied, unhappy, and less productive. Sometimes it leads to costly and dangerous mistakes. Think of hospital workers who have delivered the wrong drug, or air traffic controllers asleep at the job, or people in manufacturing being sloppy in assembly.
Learning the people side of business is not so easy in today’s busy work culture. Leaders and managers were not trained as psychologists or people specialists. In fact, most have no training at all. And if you try to get trained, the information is all over the map. Most books available to business people argue for one idea or the other. Drive, yes, that’s the issue. No, wait, accountability. How is anyone to pull it together into a sensible whole?
This is why we wrote The People Side of Business: Six Psychological Principles (to be published in July). The approach to employees needs to be comprehensive and balanced. Working people need to be accepted as emotional beings in need of encouragement and nurturance. They work best in a family-like environment, with the opportunity for growth and development. They also need structure and accountability to the mission and goals of the organization.
My coming posts will focus on more of the specifics needed to create a dynamic, high performance work culture.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
San Jorge Children’s Hospital is a Culture of Collaboration and Care
As a full service hospital in Puerto Rico, San Jorge is as committed to the well-being and care of its employees as it is to its young patients. A 2011 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award winner, San Jorge understands that success in their business depends on paying careful attention to the people side of business. Like MITRE and the other companies receiving this award, San Jorge demonstrates both the program excellence and concomitant work benefits of taking care of (people) business.
San Jorge has an open door communications policy to encourage and facilitate staff interaction and involvement. Active communication is sought from employees through email, meetings, and other systems. Once each month the executive director holds Dialogue Day, where any employee can have a private meeting with him on any issue. Committees of staff and managers are created to implement new ideas generated by the open communication system.
Staff is encouraged to take advantage of a wide variety of training, not just in technical areas, but also in customer service and safety. In 2007 San Jorge implemented an employee mentoring program. Mentors are given special training and incentive pay while new employees receive personalized orientation in hospital procedures and practices.
The hospital offers several programs that enable employees to manage both their professional and personal lives. The Ten Month Work Program allows participating employees to take the summer months off to care for their families. The hospital also offers an onsite art summer camp and other family activities during school breaks.
San Jorge makes the extra effort to recognize employees for their contributions to the mission of the hospital. The system celebrates work milestones and an employee of the month. Employee awards include a cruise for two and other monetary rewards. Letters that praise employees for patient care are circulated to other staff.
Employees at San Jorge report high levels of satisfaction with their jobs. They also report a congruence of company values with their own. It makes for healthier, happier, and more productive employees. It is the result of a careful plan for the people side of business.
For more on the Psychologically Healthy Workplace, visit phwa.org.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Maximizing the People Side of Business at the MITRE Corporation
Previously I spoke of how the data validates the benefits of paying attention to the people side of business. A 2011 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award winner, the MITRE Corporation stands out as a leader that successfully recruits, develops, and retains its workforce. As a larger business in the technology field, the MITRE Corporation views its intellectual capital as the company’s most important asset.
To build employee involvement, management actively invites employees to ask questions and make recommendations for workplace improvements. Bimonthly lunches allow employees to meet face-to-face with company executives, share ideas and engage in candid conversations about their careers. At this company, the employee survey is used as a critical accountability and information gathering tool that is actually used for planning and positive change.
At MITRE, employees average 40 to 60 hours of the internal and external training each year. With their own Institute, they deliver an array of nearly 800 in-house professional development courses, attracting more than 9000 participants annually. All employees are encouraged to take advantage of educational opportunities, including through a variety of options from distance learning and video conferencing to e- learning programs.
The company also explicitly spells out its goal of having employees achieve a work-life balance. The commitment to work-life balance is put into action through a holistic approach, the centerpiece of which is the Flexible Work Arrangements Program (FWAP). This program covers options for job sharing, part-time employment, flextime, teleworking, part-time and occasional telecommuting, compressed work weeks and phased retirement.
The bottom line is that MITRE’s attention to the people side of business has been a significant factor in attracting and keeping great staff. Since initiating its comprehensive work-life program eight years ago, the company’s employee attrition rate dropped from 12% to less than 5% per year. Consequently, the company can be found on a number of “employer of choice” lists.
Taking care of the people side of business is not just a thoughtful thing to do for your employees. It is the right thing to do for keeping your people healthy, happy, and highly productive. For more on the psychologically healthy workplace awards program, see phwa.org.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Data Shows the Benefits of Creating a Healthy Workplace
Last week I spoke of the appallingly low levels of satisfaction (45%) reported by American workers. Of course, you will hear me say that paying attention to the people side of business can make a huge difference not only in worker satisfaction levels, but also in performance. Let me share some persuasive data with you.
Each year the American Psychological Association gives out awards for organizations that are psychologically healthy workplaces. The candidates for the awards are evaluated on their workplace practices for employee involvement, health and safety, employee growth and development, work-life balance, and employee recognition. The categories map very nicely into our six psychological principles for the people side of business.
The companies that win the award show some interesting characteristics. For example, these workplaces had an employee turnover rate of just 11% compared with a 38% national average. There are just half as many employees reporting chronic work stress (18% vs. 36%). The number of employees intending to seek employment elsewhere is only 6% in the healthy workplaces compared with 32% in the average work environment. Finally, the employee satisfaction rate is an incredible 87%.
When your organization pays attention to the people side of business you don’t just get happier, healthier employees. You also get employees who stick around and aren’t looking for new jobs. You save money on hiring and training new employees. You save the costs of complaints and worker dissatisfaction. In short, your bottom line is greatly improved.
And this data doesn’t even begin to get to all the other consequences of a healthy workplace. We would maintain that the healthy workplaces are more creative environments, where product innovation and production are enhanced. These companies would likely have better quality control and customer satisfaction rates.
An organization just works a whole lot better when the people engine is well tuned. It is something that can be done…and it works! You can check out the psychologically healthy workplace awards program at phwa.org.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Worker Satisfaction and The People Side of Business
A 2010 Conference Board poll of 5000 households found that “only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987,” a long term downward trend that “could spell trouble for the overall engagement of U.S. employees and ultimately employee productivity.”
I don’t know about you, but this data is fairly stunning to me. You can blame it on a bad economy or a push for increased productivity. The long and short of it though is that American businesses don’t really know how to work with their employees. And it doesn’t have to be this way.
It’s fundamental: people are the key to a business’s success. You simply can’t have a successful business when employees feel insecure, unappreciated, and unmotivated. Yet, that’s exactly what is occurring as businesses attempt to navigate these challenging economic times. Few leaders understand enough about the way people operate to be effective at engaging more than a fraction of their expertise or their passions at the exact moment when increases in productivity are most crucial.
In essence, these leaders are trying to use a very powerful but complicated tool without an owner’s manual—and the results can jeopardize their bottom line. What they need is a comprehensive framework for understanding and operating their most critical tool.
If you’ve been following this blog you have a glimpse of the six psychological principles necessary to lead and manage people. Getting the best out of your employees, and simultaneously engaging them in a satisfying manner, requires a complex of ideas joined together in a coherent whole.
The current publishing world fosters a “one idea” mentality in business books. Just like in Drive, many current titles in the field attempt to get out one idea that can be quickly and easily digested. Where would W. Edwards Deming be today with his incredible 14 points?
As I continue to review our principles I want to invite you to ask your questions about the people side of business through comments on the blog. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose in the People Side of Business
This past weekend I heard a talk by Daniel Pink, the author of Drive. What fun hearing a great writer present psychological research and pull it into a coherent idea. You see, Pink believes that businesses are caught in the grip of an outdated orthodoxy; that if you reward people you get increased output. He says that this is not always true.
Pink pointed out that the new research shows that “rewarding” tasks that have even a rudimentary cognitive component doesn’t improve performance and often decreases it. Hmm, this is not intuitive. In other words, more money offered for thinking well produces less performance. For example, when teachers were incentivized for improved teaching performance, there were no improvements in their work.
But, when people were given the time to think freely, without incentives or requirements, they were their most creative. For example, Australian software workers were give an afternoon to “do what they wanted” and see what ideas they had for their work. It turned out that the most useful and creative ideas in the company came out of that short creative period. No wonder Google offers its employees a significant percentage of their workweek for unstructured creative time.
Pink was clear about his position. Managers ought to get out of the management business and find ways to engage their employees. The keys to a successful company, at least one where there is thinking involved, are in employees gaining increased amounts of AUTONOMY, MASTERY, and PURPOSE.
Creating a high performance organization requires an understanding of a host of psychological principles. They work together. Pink has focused on a core idea that facilitates people working at their best.
Humans have this strange quirk where they do best when they can be creative; where they can do it with meaning and where they have a sense of control over their work product. Find a way to build it into your work environment and the rewards will come your way.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Leaders Appreciate Individual Differences and Embrace Healthy Diversity
Too often so many of us fall prey to bringing in people who are like-minded. Research bears this out; we hire people who look and think like ourselves. But, savvy leaders appreciate individual differences in the members of their team. In fact, they seek out healthy diversity.
These leaders know that people are unique individuals who want to be acknowledged as such. Each person wants to be recognized as special and valuable in their own right. And, they should be. They have different personalities and problem-solving approaches needed by the organization. People are not interchangeable.
One benefit of appreciating the differences is that leaders can tap the personal and technical skills necessary for each role. Bill Gates did this marvelously at Microsoft. When he located someone with talent he hired them… then found the right job for them. He wanted the best. Ultimately it is the quality of the people, in the right roles, that make a successful company.
If you follow this logic, you realize that embracing healthy diversity is a key to organizational high performance. You need people with different approaches, who can relate to a diverse consumer base, to solve the problems you face. What you don’t want is a team of people sitting around you who all have the same ideas. It may feel very affirming for you as the leader, but it gets you nowhere. You need others with diversity of ideas, perspectives, and approaches.
Leaders embrace healthy diversity because they know it is the right thing to do, and it is a winning formula. Physical diversity, of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual preference, also brings mental diversity. There is a greater opportunity for and acceptance of new ideas. Everyone benefits when there is diversity in the organizational team.
The “healthy” part comes when leadership fosters a culture where everyone participates in bringing their different personal identities and ideas, and where everyone comes together once decisions are made. This is another one of those tricky balancing acts. Everyone is unique, and yet everyone must end up pulling in the same direction.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
Great Leadership Balances Support and Structure
Through my posts about the people side of business and about leadership you’ve probably noticed that our model stipulates the need for a balance of support and structure. Being able to nurture and support staff while simultaneously holding them accountable in a positive structure is no small trick. But it is precisely this balance that has people respond to leadership in a healthy manner.
Most people, whether in their leadership or parenting, tend to lean to one side of the support/structure continuum. You’ve seen those who are task masters and those who are softies. You may notice that you are more “by the numbers” or more relational. This tendency to lean a bit is natural. Great leaders work to hold the middle ground.
Often I’ve been asked how you can do both. The question will be phrased something like, “Doesn’t being supportive indicate that you won’t hold people accountable?” My simple answer is that this is not true at all.
In fact, perhaps paradoxically, support and structure are mutually enhancing. People who feel nurtured have an easier time taking difficult feedback. People respect structure and perform harder when they feel taken care of. The two components really do work together.
Your followers (employees, team members, kids) will scan you to see if you care. People read leaders carefully for their motivation, their concern, and their commitment to people, not just their technical knowledge of the business. The attitude inside the leader matters and you can’t fake it. If you genuinely balance support and structure, people will perceive it.
People are also very capable of reading many styles of caring. You could be a crusty old guy, but if you listen and are interested, people get it. You can be outgoing or more socially reticent. What matters most is what you have in your heart. Be your kind of caring leader, and make sure there is structure for success, and people will work hard for you.
Tom DeMaio, PhD
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