Care as a Leadership Strategy
Last time I talked about the 3 C's required for people to feel empowered - Clarity, Competence and Care. We need all 3 for people to feel empowered. They need the skills to do the job right (competence), they need the information to make the right decision (clarity) and they need to feel that the organisation and its leadership are asking them to step up and take responsibility because it's the right thing for them, not the thing that will make the most profit or allow more downsizing (care). It should make their jobs better and more fulfilling, it should help them grow and advance their careers. If all 3 C's are present, people will feel empowered.
So care is essential for empowerment, but that's not all. My view is that care is the single most important quality that sets great leaders apart from everyone else. These days, care is not something we talk about a lot in a business context. There might be an "Employee care" section of the HR website which lists the services you can call when the stress of your job gets too much, but there is very little actual care involved in modern business. You are more likely to hear words like "data driven" than "care driven". I mean, most organisations call people "resources" without even cringing a little (and treat them like resources as well). Actual, real care and compassion for people is missing in modern organisations and I strongly feel that it needs to be brought back. Not just because it's good for people, but because it's good for business as well.
In most large organisations, there are a lot of tokenistic nods to care - employee care lines, directives to have 1:1 chats with all your direct reports regularly so they can talk about their concerns. What is usually missing is any actual care. We say the words and do the things but without the feeling that underpins it. So the 1:1s become either superficial small talk sessions - "how are things? OK I guess. Good how about we both get 25 mins back in our calendars?" or become work review sessions where progress is checked against targets, rather than a safe space where concerns can be raised and suggestions made. People can tell if it's a token effort and will not feel safe to raise real concerns.
Tokenism like that - the appearance of care without any actual care leads to lack of trust. People can sense when it's real and when it isn't.
In any large organisation though, you will find leaders who are different. Leaders who have a real relationship with their people. Leaders who make their 1:1s a real safe space and even better, have actual, real conversations with their people every day. Leaders who obviously actually deeply care about their people and their wellbeing. Those leaders that invest real time and effort into building relationships with their teams. And it does take a lot of effort and personal commitment to build these relationships; it's hard work.
But when you look at those leaders, they perform so much better than the leaders who don’t. Not so much during business as usual - business as usual rewards competent managers as much as it rewards inspiring leaders. But throw in a crisis, or a need to innovate, then these leaders are able to navigate that so much better than the mere competent managers. Wherever there is a need for people to move out of their comfort zones, to learn new things and grow, then the leader who has put in the effort to develop a real caring relationship with their people will succeed where others will fail.
Most people are naturally conservative about things that affect them personally. They will tend to resist change, especially when the call to change comes from someone whose motives are thought to be suspect. If people suspect the motive behind the change they will resist. They may follow along through fear of losing their job, they may pay lip service, but they won't commit to the change.
On the other hand, if someone they trust is asking for change, someone who they know has their best interests at heart because they have spend months or years proving that, then they will follow. They may not like where they are going, but they will follow because they trust the person, their judgement and their motives.
As a leader you are probably time poor. Building those relationships takes time and energy, things that are in short supply. Should you make the investment? Amongst all the other calls on your time, is this something you should devote time to? Yes. In my mind this is probably the single most important thing you can do as a leader. The investment you make here will pay back many times over. We live in times where the only certainty is change. If you can build these relationships, you will be able to navigate your organisation through change much better than someone who doesn't.
Leaders who consciously go out and build that caring relationship with their people can navigate uncertain and changing conditions far better that those who don't because their people will follow and not resist. Even better, their people will then take the initiative and start to change without even being asked. They will raise concerns, they will highlight issues, they will bring things to the attention of their leader that would otherwise be missed, and they will take the initiative to respond to them.
You can't just start building the relationships when the need to change is urgent. That will look false and be rejected. These things take time. You have to put in the effort up front .
But if you do put in that effort, your organisation will be more responsive and better informed because issues are being raised earlier. Small problems will be fixed rather than festering into large problems. When change is needed your people will willingly do what needs to be done without resisting. Whenever things are uncertain or changing, you will shine and your colleagues who have not built those relationships will not.