Your People Need Your Help to Grow

Learning and growth don't just happen. So if you're a leader expecting your people to magically be better and do more without any effort or attention from you, well, sadly you're going to be disappointed. Coaching and developing people is a key and intentional part of every leader's job. It's often more challenging than "the work," and doesn't always show immediate results. So, particularly in times of economic pressure, the conversations and activities that let employees know they are valued and that they have a future are ignored or at best hugely delayed and deprioritized, and this choice (and it is a choice) can't help but come at a cost.

Here are a few examples of what we've seen just in the past few months:

• A request to get a coach for an employee to correct and improve interpersonal skills and stress behaviour, without that employee having been given the benefit of feedback about their problematic behaviours (which takes time and effort from their manager).
• A request for a 360 feedback survey where the next steps - which are in the hands of the employee - have languished for several months, with no follow up or hints of interest from the manager.
• Individuals reaching out to us directly to hire a coach in support of their performance in a new role, saying that they've been told that there's no budget or policy to support their transition into their new situation (but being insightful and self-aware enough to know that they need help, and courageous enough to ask for it).
• Individuals sharing with us that they are struggling yet are unable to access enough of their boss' time and attention to get feedback or direction (let alone support for stress and mental health challenges).
• Senior level leaders mired in day to day details and micromanaging their people such that there's no room for an individual to stretch their capabilities (which by definition involves taking more time, doing things imperfectly and making mistakes).
• Interpersonal rifts and dysfunctional relationships with colleagues impeding a team's ability to get things done.

We've all been hearing statistics lately about the percentage of people who suffer "extreme" stress at work daily (it's high), and the degree to which employees cite a decline in their mental health over the past year or so (also high). Relentless pressure without respite, let alone clear messages of appreciation, is taking its toll.

We also know that data collected during the early stages of "The Great Resignation" told us that more than anything else people want to feel valued, seen and heard at work. Guess what kinds of conversations are great for that? Conversations about a person's growth and development.

And before we blame the front line/first level managers (who are always the ones to struggle most with pressure and lack of resources) let me offer that the examples I cited above are all examples based on individuals at the Director, Senior Director and VP levels. My hypothesis is that once people progress beyond that front line there's some belief that they are self-sufficient enough to "not need" attention or investment. Yet, paradoxically, at the same time those mid and senior level people are often being suffocated by the leader above them who can't seem to delegate or trust their capabilities. Oh, and the front line managers are struggling too...

What can be done?

There's a massive work culture issue that can't be entirely solved by the introduction of new tactical behaviours. For one thing, "do more with less" HAS. TO. STOP. It's literally crushing people. For another, any real change is going to require courage and discomfort and honest, vulnerable conversations. Most people love their jobs and usually also their companies but are struggling with living up to what they perceive as relentless, unreasonable demands. A wide scale recalibration of expectations would be a great start.

I'd also love to know that more conversations about trust are happening. Most people are genuinely trying to do their best, yet all the way up the hierarchical ladder it seems that bosses don't believe that they can trust their people to do their jobs.

Failing any of that - or until those changes start to happen - here are a few tactical ideas:

1) Instill a commitment to regular (monthly or quarterly) development conversations with every single direct report. Separate them from the 1:1's that focus on tasks and projects, and schedule and prioritize them as valuable and important.

2) Allocate time for activities whose sole purpose is to build skill and develop capabilities. Training days, conference attendance, regular time for creativity and collaboration - all of these can reignite energy and fuel growth (but tend to get delayed and cancelled because they don't have direct real-time impact on the business).

3) Give people stretch projects with the grace of time to work on something new and short feedback loops so they don't feel adrift in uncertainty.

4) Celebrate wins, even (maybe especially) small ones. "Feedback" has gotten a bad reputation as being all about weakness and areas for improvement, but really it's supposed to be information about the impact of a behaviour which is as often positive as it is otherwise. Letting someone know you've seen their effort goes a long way.

The bottom line - people need to learn and grow, not just to be better at their jobs but, more importantly, to feel appreciated. If they don't, they'll burn out or leave, putting even more pressure on those who remain.

Organizations aren't going away any time soon, so isn't it in our best interests to make them work as well as possible? Seth Godin put it aptly in a podcast conversation with Jonathan Fields . He offered that we've collectively lost sight of what role organizations were supposed to play in the world. They were supposed to serve us, not the other way around. Seth's most recent book The Song of Significance is a call for the creation of more human-centric workplaces. It's well past time.