Front and center on my website I say “Great leaders are human and results-oriented.” Occasionally I get the question “What does this really mean, beyond a nice sounding tagline? What exactly sits at the intersection of being human and results-oriented?” There are many answers, but here is one of them: if you build a culture where people thrive, they will do their best work for you. Creating an organization, or a division, or a team, where people are both fulfilled and productive is not only possible, it is nowadays necessary. Here is how you build a culture where people thrive:
1. Treat people like adults
Treating people like adults means empowering them to make decisions; listening to their ideas when creating strategy (people on the front line are the closest to the customer, after all); and thinking twice before putting in place layers of bureaucracy which do produce consistency, but also take away the individual’s ability to use their own judgment. To be clear, treating people like adults does not mean expecting them to perform without giving them appropriate support.
In practice, it can mean doing away with cumbersome and useless written performance evaluations once a year, in favor of a flexible, on-going check-in process (like Adobe did). Netflix famously insists on this principle of treating people like adults in their culture, too.
Treating people like adults sounds easy, but it is hard, because it means trusting people, and people do make mistakes. But the alternative is worse: treat people like children who need to be told exactly what to do and how to do it, and they will start behaving as such.
2. Be clear and transparent in your communication
…about performance expectations, career paths, and how people’s jobs relate to the purpose of the company (here’s some HBR research proving why this is so important to engagement).
In my work I often see managers or companies use an opaque promotion process. I know they are often doing it because they don’t have it all figured out: there are multiple, moving factors involved in promotion decisions, some under the manager’s control, some not, and there are regional or country differences as well. They do not want to appear unfair or confusing, so they default to saying nothing at all. Saying “it’s complicated, here’s what I know, here’s what I do not” is always better for people’s motivation than saying nothing.
3. Play to people’s strengths
I was talking to a group of high performers recently about their best managers throughout their careers, the kind of people they would follow anywhere. A strong theme that came up were managers who saw a person’s strengths even when they were struggling, and believed in them, supporting them towards success.
Gallup has years of research on strengths-based leadership, which Buckingham and Coffman used to write the book “First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently” (strongly recommend!). There is a longer, complicated conversation here about resourcing, dealing with low performers, and the fact that strengths-based development does not mean ignoring glaring weaknesses. But ultimately, this is about the very human principle that you should be rooting for your people to succeed.
4. Do not avoid difficult conversations (such as giving tough feedback)
A culture where you cannot be honest is one where people 1) do not know what they are doing wrong and 2) will never get fired (at best, they might be “encouraged to move on” for reasons unclear to them and everyone else). And neither of these things is fair. In the words of Brene Brown: clear is kind; unclear is unkind.
In all my years of coaching and consulting, I have learned, indeed, that people struggle with receiving tough feedback. But I have also learned that people (mostly) genuinely want to do a good job; and learning from our mistakes is an essential component of that. Giving difficult feedback takes courage but it is essential to growth. I do think the secret is being tough on the message, but soft/supportive on the person. More on that soon.
5. Invest in developing people
This does not have to be sophisticated and expensive people development programs. It just means providing people the support to learn and advance their careers. It can be as simple as making time for coaching conversations on the job, being vulnerable with your team about your own career struggles, or spending one hour to mentor people.
A few years ago Google undertook a massive study to understand what makes a good manager at Google. They called it Project Oxygen (and have updated it since). What did the study reveal as the no. 1 habit of highly effective managers? “Be a good coach.” Humans are learning machines: we not only enjoy learning, but we need to learn and stretch to keep being at our best, otherwise we get bored.
6. Put your money (rewards system) where your mouth is
Steven Kerr wrote a classic business article about “the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B.” You need to reward what you expect. If the company rhetoric is all about developing people but the leaders who get promoted make little time for their people, then you have a problem.
Notice that nowhere do I say: the more money you pay people, the harder they will work for you. That is simply not true. There is a baseline of financial reward that is necessary (and considered fair), but beyond that, no money in the world will make people give you their best if they hate coming to work.
7. Managers will make or break the employee experience
Just because someone is a good technical performer worthy of being promoted, it does not make them a good manager overnight. Good managers do the stuff above (treat people like adults, have the tough conversation, root for their people, etc.) as well as drive for results. And managers matter, because they are people’s closest tie to the organization. “People don’t leave bad organizations, they leave bad managers.”—you may have heard the saying go. It turns out the truth is a bit more complex: people leave when the job is not enjoyable, their strengths are not used, and they are not growing in their careers. And managers can absolutely make that happen… or not.
People do their best work when they can use their strengths, are supported to learn, are clear about what needs to be achieved and allowed enough autonomy to make it happen. If they also believe in the importance of what they are doing, then magic happens!
