From Liability to Asset

Safety has been the biggest concern in today's business world. This time, safety is about unexpected economic fluctuations and our or our loved one's survival. Even in the 20th century, using modern technologies and following the well-planned policies, we can not ensure safety. This has an immediate impact on the way we try to think, feel and do.

This is true that technology, policies, procedures, risk analysis, contingency plans have advanced to a completely different level. At the same time, unfortunately, it turned people to become the greatest liability for any business. People are becoming more reactive, rather responsive, more competitive rather collaborative, and more individualistic than collective.

And having leaders like these around us, makes us feel more unsafe, drops our self-confidence down, and force us to become less and less productive.

Having a reactive manager gives us the feeling like we have been asked to seat on a brand new car for a test drive with a little issue (!) with the break!

Imagine how you would feel?

Would you trust the car fully?

Thought no.

Similarly, having a team who is not emotionally controlled, having a manager who has a little issue (!) with stress, or being in an environment where people are more competitive and less supportive is adding a more unsafe/insecure feeling and resulting in the work environment more toxic and unhealthy.

This reminds me of the nice talk by Simon Sinek on toxic culture:

For a business in adversity, people can be the liability for a complex and toxic work environment or can be turned into the asset.

We can do it by being more supportive, showing empathy more often, thinking about our collaborative interest. And by doing this consistently, we gain trust - which is easy to lose in the adversity. But once you have it, people work beyond, and they stay with the business in any situation - regardless.

We need to remember; our people are our asset, not a liability to push harder to get some benefits out of them. Because a system/procedure can process, but only people can think. And as a leader, we can lead them to think towards a better solution - for us.

Mindspeed point in action: Talk to your team. Listen to them. Use the language that shows genuine empathy. And stay away from making fun out of reality may hurt them instead of boosting their energy. If they share about any problem, remember they want to be heard. And do this consistently (not once in a while for 1 hour rather small and regularly) will gradually build mutual trust.

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