The Compartmentalization Challenge for Leaders!

In my years as a professional in the Human Resource domain, I have journeyed from an operational HR focus to a functional HR focus. This transition has allowed me to cross paths with several leaders with people management responsibility, each carrying his or her own style of creating influence. In this article, I would like to focus on one notable tendency that hampers the ability of leaders to manage their people impactfully – compartmentalization.

By compartmentalization, I am referring to the psychological tendency of a person to divide his or her focus/feelings into separate compartments so that they do not cause contradiction or inner conflict within the person. Studies have indicated that compartmentalization, when done right, can help manage stress but if poorly regulated, can result in emotional suppression or strained relationships.

So, setting aside any debate on whether compartmentalization is right or wrong, I would like to share some thoughts from my experience of interacting with several leaders, on how compartmentalization in the workplace, can adversely impact a leader’s ability to create authentic rapport and influence.

To set some context before diving in, a common conflict many leaders with people management responsibility face, is not knowing the extent to which they can mix professional and personal interactions with the people they manage. While there is no exact science or formula for success to address this problem statement, several leaders resort to compartmentalizing their focus solely on the professional output expected from the employee, to do right by their role as a functional leader.

?However, by doing so, when they compartmentalize their focus and view their team members through the lens of what work output is required from them, some or many of the following can occur:

• Traits such as empathy, understanding and caring for the well-being of the employee take a backseat considering the productivity and output expected.
• The leader’s ability to develop the employee gets stunted because of the lack of personal connect to identify areas of development, or to drive influence and buy-in from the employee.
• The leader’s focus rests largely on getting the job done rather than on developing the team member to grow and remain longer with the organization.
• Encountering instances that require understanding or empathy to navigate through a personal difficulty or challenge shared by a team member results in inner conflict and stress of having to help the team member beyond performance management of the KRAs, sometimes leading up to outbursts and open conflict.
• Personal issues affecting performance that are brought to light are dealt with a ‘not my problem to solve’ approach which in turn can cause employees to stop opening up about problems impacting their work.
• Decisions are taken from a place of judgement rather than understanding.
• The leader fails to come across as authentically being invested in the success of the employee since not enough time has been spent getting to know the employee and the employee’s career aspirations to enable alignment between the organization and the employee’s paths.

While the list can keep going, the underlying point that remains is that by compartmentalizing, leaders fail to establish a human connection with their teams which creates the foundation on which all other interactions can be built to last. We, as humans, are a bundled package. We carry our emotions, competencies, and character to everything we do. So, trying to separate the person out of the profession we are in, is as illogical in practice, as it sounds in our head when reading this sentence. On the flip side, having no distinctions and blurring the lines of personal and professional interactions, can lead to unintended consequences such as bias, favoritism, harassment, fixation, inappropriate conduct, and more.

What then, could leaders do, to deal with the people in their charge while ensuring there is a healthy and balanced outlook towards their personal and professional lives? Here are six takeaways to consider:

• Learn to acknowledge your team member as a whole and use that wholistic understanding to channel your team member’s efforts to the requirements of the job.
• Establish healthy boundaries of acceptable/unacceptable performance and behavior instead of tagging things as professional vs. personal and choosing to focus dominantly on any one category.
• Be accessible to your team member as a person first. If your team cannot relate to your identity outside of the title you carry, you have lost the opportunity to lead them because of the example you are.
• Be a parent. Feel responsible for nurturing your people so they can grow. Do not limit your focus to just getting the job done. Such focus may get the job done today but will not guarantee retaining the people who helped get it done, tomorrow.
• Talk through problems. Avoiding them is not the same as eliminating them. People are real, so are the challenges they face. You do not have to know the solution. Listening is the first step to showing you care and are there for your people, which in turn can help you redirect them to the appropriate person/support group that can offer help.
• Listen to understand, not to judge. Your subordinates are more likely to respect your decisions and direction, when they know you listen and speak from a place of understanding and care for their success. Being judgmental about them erodes mutual respect and willingness to follow since it comes at a personal cost of you attacking their self-esteem.

In my experience, doing the above is tough, demanding, intentional, requires patience, perseverance, and sacrifice. It requires taking your people seriously, like you would your own child where you'd ensure you’ve given your best to grooming your child to be successful in this world. It requires being open about your intentions for success towards your people and letting them know, through your words and actions, that you are invested in their growth and success, for their sake, not for your gain.

So, if you are reading this article today and have some room for course correction in the way you view your team members with a compartmentalized lens, I encourage you to break down the walls limiting your view so you can see your people as a whole and renew your focus on how to enable them to be successful!

Happy reading and happy leading!

#leadership #peoplemanagement #emotionalintelligence #peopledevelopment

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