By Shawn Doyle

I have worked with and for many leaders in my career. I have worked with mean nasty tyrants, weak indecisive leaders, plastic leaders who lacked authenticity to such a degree I never believed anything they said. I have worked with leaders who were nice people, but lacked direction and focus. Now, for the last 22 years I have flown all over the country east to west and north to south teaching leadership programs. For the last several months I have been ruminating on a central core question; here it is- what makes a great leader? Not a good one but a great one?  Is it:

  • Knowledge of the industry?
  • An eye on P&L?
  • Great communication skills?
  • Charisma?
  • Holding people accountable?
  • Mission /vision and goals?
  • The ability to articulate a message?
  • Hiring well?
  • Process improvement?
  • Sales and marketing focus?

Ok I admit it- they are all important on the above list. They all count- and the competent leader has to have all those to some extent. I get that. Those are characteristics of a good leader. In my mind a great leader is a leader who is people centric. As Jack Welch (former CEO of G.E) once said “The single biggest reason for our success at G.E. was our focus on people- to unleash the human spirit.” 

So here is a formula to consider. I hate to break this to you ol’ great and powerful leader- but you don’t do the work the “worker bees” do the work. So if we truly focus on the people who are doing the work, we improve the results. When people feel appreciated, acknowledged, developed, groomed, coached, and taken care of – they do more, make more and sell more. I can’t make any clearer than that. It’s that simple. So wait- if it is really that simple, then why aren’t more leaders doing it? 1) it’s hard grinding work 2) it is time consuming 3) it does not have immediate results 4) it’s not a metric that many companies measure at all  5) many leaders I meet just don’t know how 6) they don’t have a people strategy.  

So are you at a loss as to where to begin? Here are seven tips to being a more people centric leader. Some ideas are easy some are more complex- but combined can be very powerful.

  1. Respect- Set expectations that all employees will be treated with respect. No exceptions. But don’t stop there- take it a step further- define what that means from a behavioral point of view. Set standards of behavior for executives on how they will treat everyone. Make those standards measurable or observable. Here is one example I feel strongly about- don’t sit and check email on your blackberry when you are talking to someone- it’s very disrespectful. Really.
  2. Tap into the intellectual capital- Get everyone involved and ask for their feedback and ideas. Far too many ideas come from the front office when they could have come from the frontline. They know what is really going on. Besides, you get better buy in when people come up with the solutions. I hear employees say all the time “we have ideas but no one ever asks our opinion.”
     
  3. Twice a year performance reviews- Not once- twice. People don’t want to wait forever to get feedback. The pace of the business world has sped up except when we are giving people feedback. I talk to companies who have annual reviews but by the time they are written and then discussed 14- 15 months have gone by. Give solid constructive feedback more often. I think that feedback is a form of appreciation. It you are willing to spend time with me you appreciate me.
     
  4. Acknowledge people for their efforts- Ok so this is obvious ( like hit me with a brick obvious) but people do want to be thanked. Don’t you? So why even include it in the list of ideas? Because I meet thousands of people every year who tell me- (yep that is right) that they never hear “thank you” from leadership. Ever. Leave them a voice mail thanking them for something. Drop them an email or a hand written note. In this case little things do mean a lot. 
     
  5. Take interest in them- Have small talk- ask them how their family is- how Billy did in the baseball game, how their sick Aunt is feeling. I see leaders who are really busy and they never take the time to just stop and chat with someone in the hall way for a few minutes, or worse- walk by them without any form of acknowledgement in any way (not even eye contact or a nod) as if they are invisible. Arrogant behavior breeds resentment and kills loyalty. Here is an example of taking an interest – one of my client companies has a “Lunch with” session once a week and they get about six people from different departments to sit and have lunch with the CEO in a conference room so they can chat informally. No agenda, no subjects just the CEO making very important connections, six people at a time.
     
  6. Celebrate people- Celebrate service awards, anniversaries, birthdays, milestones and benchmarks. One company I know has their “celebration lunch” once a month and the use it to celebrate all the things I just mentioned. Employees love it and it’s smart because they do them all at once. I was there for one and I felt the positive energy in the room.
     
  7. Develop people- Every leader should be having a discussion with every direct report, and ask them about their career goals and then help them develop a plan to get there. Yes everyone in the organization no matter their title or position. So then everyone has a potential future and a positive outlook for the future.

If you do all of these actions on a regular basis- you stand a strong chance of being the kind of leader that people want to follow. A people centric leader.

Shawn Doyle is the President of New Light Learning and Development Inc. (www.newlightlearning.com) a company specializing in leadership development and sales effectiveness. He is also the creator of the Motivation Nation- the #1 largest motivation group on LinkedIn with our 4700 members.