The Workplace Coach

The Gallup Organization, a global analytics and advisory company, conducts extensive research on employee engagement and organizational performance. Their findings, based on over 10 million interviews with managers and employees, highlight 12 Elements of Great Managing for engagement and high performance. Consistently, employees worldwide have conveyed a clear message:

“If you do these things for us, we will do what the company needs of us”.

The fifth element of managing people for high performance and results is a simple concept but is often overlooked.  Simply put, the essence of effective leadership lies in fostering a sense of personal connection and care within the team.

Too many employers have wielded the ‘big stick’ approach, failing to understand that directives, financial incentives and fear of discipline can motivate employees but only up to a point. The Gallup research conclusively shows that genuine care and personal connection from supervisors or colleagues plays a crucial role in maximizing team performance.

3 Reasons to show you care:

1. Build Social Capital: Described as the bridge between people, social capital encompasses trust, personal networks, shared understandings, and equitable participation in a joint enterprise. It supports collaboration, commitment, and organisational coherence. Employees who feel valued as individuals are more likely to contribute positively to the team.
2. Predictor of Trustworthiness: An employee’s perception of whether the company cares about their personal well-being is a strong predictor of their trustworthiness and commitment to the organisation. Employees who feel cared for are less likely to engage in unethical behaviour or put the organisational reputation at risk.  
3. Lower Turnover Rates: Studies show a clear correlation between feeling cared for and lower turnover rates. This was clearly evident than during those first two years of Covid.  Employees who felt that their employer did not care about their health and wellbeing recorded the lowest levels of engagement, and the highest rates of turnover.  Many cited their main reason for leaving ‘my employer doesn’t care about my wellbeing’.

Surveys have consistently shown over time that lower job satisfaction scores almost always occur when the leader lacks the skill to meaningfully care for employees. One of the strongest predicators of job satisfaction is the quality of the relationship with an employee’s immediate supervisor.

The key takeaway here for managers is this: 

Get to know your people, as people. Let them get to know you too.  Treat every relationship at work as though you are going to be in a long-term relationship with that person and it’s important that you both get to know, like and trust each other.  

For further information on this topic, or any other related to people management, feel free to reach out.  We’re here to help. 

The Workplace Coach.