Paul Lyons* has advice for large or expanding organisations that fear they may be losing the human touch.
I’m working with an organisation on maintaining its positive culture in the face of some rapid growth across a few offices.
This can often be a challenge although the quality of the leadership in this particular organisation is a key factor in its continued success.
The consistent message from the employees across all its offices is that the business leaders, and in particular the chief Executive, genuinely care about them.
This compassion will certainly help the culture to strengthen in line with the growth in head-count.
There is no doubt in my mind that such leadership qualities most definitely matter for all organisations wishing to be successful.
Such an approach increases alignment, sense of empowerment and loyalty, and often reduces the stress and uncertainty caused by isolation and inconsistency.
Here are some practical suggestions for leaders wishing to demonstrate compassion in practice.
Lead by example:
As with most cultural attributes, the care factor starts at the top of an organisation with leaders knowing that what they say and what they do sets the tone.
Spending some time focused on and interested in the wellbeing of colleagues and employees shows your team that you care about people as well as productivity.
Be authentic:
Leading by example requires authenticity and empathy.
You must be clear that you are genuinely interested in hearing about challenges and failures just as much as opportunities and successes.
You want to demonstrate that you are taking time to address concerns and inspiring them to achieve their potential.
Family first:
Creating a family-first ethos is a clear message that you care about your employees.
You demonstrate that you understand the importance of family in their lives and that you acknowledge there will be times that family takes preference over work.
Whilst this can sometimes have a short term impact on productivity it will likely have a much stronger and broader positive impact on loyalty and culture.
Empower your team with ‘flexibility and responsibility’:
Empower your team to make smart decisions around their working day.
Use a ‘flexibility with responsibility’ approach demonstrating your compassion.
This will hopefully lead to your employees understanding the value of flexibility and positively responding by taking responsibility for ensuring the work gets done.
Show appreciation and gratitude:
It’s the small things like appreciation and gratitude that actually become the big things.
This happens when the leader demonstrates their recognition of the unique skills that each team member brings to the organisation.
Appreciation invariably leads to greater motivation and passion to tackle the next challenge.
*Paul Lyons is a business leader, adviser and coach with a diverse career across Australia and Asia. He can be contacted at [email protected].
This article first appeared on the Mental Toughness blogsite
