The 7 Barriers to Caring Leadership
Good leaders care about their employees: they actively and thoughtfully help them reach their goals. But organizations often create barriers to caring which inevitably hurts performance and retention.
A friend of mine was the first woman partner in one of our city’s large law firms. She was also the first to manage a practice area, responsible for a dozen attorneys. I asked her, “How many non-billable hours is the firm allowing you for management time?” She laughed. “None.” Tough when you’re already working sixty-hour weeks and have little kids at home.
She quit and started her own practice. That probably cost her old firm $1,000,000.
#1: Principles Over Policies: The risks are worth it
Most policies are like broken clocks: they only exactly right twice a day.
Policies can promote compliance, fairness, and consistency, and they can communicate an organization’s values. But they never match every employee’s unique situation.
We’ve all heard stories like this one from a Workgroup member: An employee lost a parent early in the year and used up their bereavement benefits. But they also lost their spouse later that year, and the organization wouldn’t give them additional days. Fortunately, the employee’s manager became their relentless advocate. To the organization’s credit, they created a much more generous policy.
Try this: Adopt a value statement like this one from another Workgroup member, which is simply, “Do the right thing.” Yes, the lawyers will say it’s risky, but it could be worth it.
#2: Balanced Workload: Caring take time
To really care for someone, you first need to establish rapport. That’s easy with extroverts but takes much longer for shy people and introverts.
You need time to get to know them, time to listen, time to reflect, and time to discuss things as a group. After you establish rapport, you need time for them to learn, to communicate, and to adjust to changes.
Groups also need time to get to know each other. The amount of time will vary by the number of teammates and their level of experience, but a manager (who’s usually also a specialist) needs at least 25% of their week to be as a manager.
Try this: Most organizations don’t provide enough time for being a manager. Make a pie chart of how you use your time now, and how you’d like to use your time.
#3: A High Standard of Management Competence: Give them the tools
A manager must be competent in general management, not just a nice person.
But U.S. businesses are spending less and less on management training, now under $1,000 per year. Use The Index of Terms & Practices to assess the skills and knowledge managers need to help their people succeed. 10% greater management ability = 10% higher margins.
Funny thing: most people don’t really know what good management looks like. They think management is having a bunch of people show up to a meeting, start talking all at once and then, a half hour after the meeting was supposed to end, divvy up several tasks, which rarely get done.
Try this: We think The Index and Standards-Based Management offers a scalable and flexible training framework.
#4: Meaningful Purpose and Clear Direction: A plan people actually follow
Being a caring manager means providing your people meaningful work, both as a team and as individuals. It means providing them a plan, clear priorities, ample resources, and good relationships with other departments.
Planning is hard. Planners need to decide what to do, what not to do, what to stop doing, and what to set as top priorities. Planning creates accountability up and down the corporate ladder. But without clear direction, managers can help their people achieve something that everyone knows matters to the organization.
Try this: Draft a Goal Tree, if only as an abstract of your current plan or planning ideas.
#5: The Right Rewards: People will follow the money
The compensation and employee recognition plan are what really drive behavior. If people get paid for short-term individual successes, then that’s what you’ll get—not the patient development of the team. The classic problem is paying salespeople 100% commission for top-line sales, which inevitably results in intense internal competition by a few top sellers.
Watch for the sequel post, “The Curse of the Billable Hour!”
Try this: Link manager’s raises, bonuses, and recognition of their team’s performance, not for specific tasks and projects.
#6: A Collaborative, not Competitive Culture: We’re a “company” for a reason
Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, famously had a policy of firing the managers who performed in the bottom 10%. Naturally, people are going to step on people’s heads to make sure they were on the upper rungs of the ladder. Managing with fear is the very best way to minimize collaboration, morales, and retention.
Try this: Create a “manager of the month” award for people who’ve demonstrated they truly care for their employees and have the performance results to show for it.
#7: Exemplars: Caring starts at the top
An uncaring executive will inhibit the managers who work for them from caring for the next level of employees. A friend is an experienced IT project manager who’s successfully implemented many 8-figure projects. But he got a new boss who’d roll up the project report and would, in the weekly project review meetings, and bonk on the head anyone whose project was late. Yes, that’s true.
Try this: The CEO must act firmly and promptly if an executive is poisoning the culture. If they don’t then they should have some sharp questions to answer from the board. If you’re subordinate, use the whistleblower mechanism or an anonymous message to get the CEO’s attention.
Caring is Radiant
Besides these organizational barriers to caring managers, individuals also have barriers of their own. A manager can be facing draining problems at home. They might just have a bad day.
People who were once good managers can get burned out or have rekindled an interest in a specialty—in short, they shouldn’t be managers anymore.
Try this: Once a year, the executives should ask, “Do you still enjoy being a manager? Do you want to take a break or try something else?” Having the wrong person in the job is a barrier to everyone, including themselves.
