What Leaders Can Do to Value People and Raise Belonging

It's popular at this point to ask leaders to value their people. Translating that into everyday behaviour though can get missed. The question is how do you value your people in a way that is sincere, productive and conveys belonging, inclusion and respect.

Some behaviours seem like engaging and valuing people, but these are misleading and don't have the same effect. Think of people pleasing, making promises you can't keep as a leader and dangling the proverbial carrot to make people stay when they consider quitting.

Employees see through these half-hearted and self-serving tactics. These make workers feel even more disengaged and undervalued . This is also a lose-lose. Instead, leaders must get good at methods that stay honest and create genuine engagement that lasts and retains talent.

When I used to be a team leader, one of my valued team members expressed a desire to take up another job. I was moved that the person thought it fit to come and let me know about it first. I took that opportunity to share again why I valued them, what they still had to achieve in this role and the upsides of being in my team. I also acknowledged that some of their career aspirations could not be met right away, and I would understand if they chose to move on. All I wanted was for them to apply critical thinking skills and take a decision for the right reasons. That person decided to stay on! And over time, I was able to offer them the career advancement they so desired (and that they had worked for!).

Not all stories have a happy ending like this one. Though all of us as leaders have more influence that we realise or harness. Consider these doable actions that create a sense of value for others. All of these are well within the reach of leaders and help raise value.

Ask people what support looks like for them

In an increasingly diverse, complex and distributed work set up, a leader's job has turned harder than before. Playing the guessing game of good leadership is no longer sustainable or advisable. Instead, leaders can take the more effective and productive route of simply asking what support their team members need in order to bring their best talents to the table. People often hesitate to seek what they need for fear of coming across as fussy or demanding. You can make their lives easier by checking in and making way for them to do their best work.

Use empathy as a leadership strategy

When we don't use empathy as a strategy, it falls into the category of a wishy-washy skillset that's meant for the softies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Empathy is not an easy skill to master and execute in a genuine way. Also, teams understand that it's easy for leaders to ignore their struggles at work. So, when you take a pause and enquire how someone is doing, and how that is affecting their work and wellbeing, you convey value and caring. Teams reciprocate being cared for by caring for their work outcomes and their customers.

Provide regular and frequent feedback

A trend being amplified by Gen Z, and started by Millennials, is of frequent feedback. This caught many traditionally minded leaders by surprise. Feedback was given once in while. To give it more regularly seemed a bit too much. Even so, research tells us that fair, regular and timely feedback is vital to engagement and high performance. When leaders provide feedback that propels action, it creates a sense of value. The message leaders send out is this - I care about you and your career enough to invest in you doing better than before.

Publicly acknowledge contributions

A?survey by Limeade ?found that employees who felt appreciated by their employers were 38% more engaged and 18% more likely to go the extra mile in their day to day tasks. Moreover, 80% of employees said recognition motivated them to work harder, according to an analysis by Gallup. So, don't just say, 'good job', and move on. Genuine appreciation requires some thinking and consideration. When done right, it conveys that you value your people and are invested and alert enough to notice when they go the extra mile at work.

Treat people with respect and equality

A significant way to help people feel valued and belong is to treat them with respect. In a research on leadership traits, 20,000 respondents ranked respect at the top of their list. People who said leaders treated them with respect were also 55% more engaged. Assess situations in which both respect and trust can be diminished, and then protect those processes. For example, role model respect in disagreements, stay respectful when mistakes happen and check undesired behaviour promptly. These help people know you value them.

Sonali D'silva? is a 'Certified Professional in Inclusive Leadership' from Catalyst Inc. and a Forbes Australia contributor on leadership and inclusion. Her purpose is for leaders to show up with greater awareness and inclusion, so teams can experience fairness, safety, respect and belonging at work. Head over to client?testimonials ?for more on Sonali's work.