The Elements of Great Managing: 5 Caring about the people you work with
[Part 5 of a 12 part series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing
The fifth element of great managing is caring about the people you work with. Gallup measures this by asking how strongly employees agree with the statement, "My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person."
You cannot order and demand your way to success - at least not for long. Frank Belleque taught me that early on. Success in business requires mutual commitment; employees toward each other and their company, and company toward its employees.
Henry Ford asked, "Why is it that I always get the whole person when what I really want is a pair of hands?" Well, the truth is, you do get a whole person. And if you want to build that person's commitment to you and your company, you better show your commitment to them, by genuinely caring about them.
Abraham Maslow thought that we have a hierarchy of instinctual needs. The most basic of those have to do with physical survival (food, water, air). Next up come safety and security. The third level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs is the need to belong. That's where this element of great managing fits in - if I feel that someone at work cares about me as a person, I am more likely to feel I belong. And hence more likely to give my commitment to the group.
Gallup's data show that people who feel that someone at work cares about them are more trustworthy, and more likely to stay with the company. In fact, in industries with traditionally high turnover, those who feel cared about are 22 percent less likely to leave than those who don't feel cared about at work.
How do you show that you care? Here are my suggestions:
Care. Be genuinely curious about the people you work with. Find out the names of their significant others. Find out what they do after hours. Be interested. But don't fake this - the worst thing you can do is ask someone how they are doing, look over their shoulder as they answer, then quickly move on to the next person.
Be a real person. Show some humility. Be human.
Listen. In fact, use all five of your personal leadership tools.
Help people see their strengths and build on them.
Insist that managers below you either adopt caring behavior, or leave.
For more information...
- "Friendships at work" has some further suggestions that might help you get to know your team better.
- "Giving to your network face to face" will give you several more ideas for building connections to folks.
- "Becoming the best at Qwest" profiles Larry Walters, a Qwest call center manager cited by the book's authors as embodying the fifth element of great managing.
- Read more articles like this in my "Leadership Development" category.
