A leadership crisis? Supporting leaders to support their teams

During the pandemic, I remember listening to several podcasts where the general commentary was along these lines: People are not okay. This is a trauma. We will need to support people to heal after this. Did this happen? There may have been some efforts made but generally people wanted to rush back into ‘normality’. This can be seen by RTO (Return to Office) mandates by senior executives who believe they can go back to how it was before. We cannot go backwards. We must pause and reflect and take our learnings forward. We need to support people through more empathic leadership. Many articles and posts talk about RTO mandates being about control, lack of trust, and about different leadership styles.

Leadership styles:

In a previous article, I wrote about traffic light or roundabout styles of leadership. Traffic light systems seek to control the flow of traffic; roundabouts trust people to figure out when to join the roundabout. It starts with trust. Why hire talented adults and treat them like children? SDT (Self Determination Theory) on Motivation tells us that there is a universal need for autonomy, competence and relatedness, which underlie growth and development. When leaders tell people what to do, they generally resist. Even if people want to go into the office a certain number of days, when they are told how many and which days they must go in, this can feel like a lack of autonomy. Of course, there are benefits of connecting in person, but there are many ways to create opportunities for people to connect without being overly prescriptive. Learning from others can also be more challenging when you are not in the same space, but by being intentional it is possible. How can leaders better support their teams?

A coaching style:

A coaching concept, Appreciative Inquiry says that organisations grow in the direction in which they inquire – look for problems, and you will find more problems; look for what’s good and you will find more of what’s good. Why do organisations continue to use performance ratings when the research tells us this is not effective? In my many years as a people leader, I have preferred and seen the benefits of a Positive Psychology, strengths-based approach. John Whitmore defines coaching as “Unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance; it involves helping them to learn rather than teaching or directing”. Many people leaders are qualified coaches, but even if they are not, supporting leaders to use a coaching style can have a profound effect on team performance. In addition, many organisations offer opportunities for employees to avail of external coaching. In the past, coaching was sometimes seen as an intervention when there was an issue to be resolved. Thankfully, in today’s workplace, coaching is a way to go from ‘good to great’ (Jim Collins). Coaching is forward focused. It is about unlocking potential and enabling personal performance. It feels like there is a lot of focus on telling people what to do, rather than listening to how we can support them to be at their best.

The challenges of people leadership:

I heard someone comment recently that they would hate to be a people leader. There are many challenges facing people leaders in today’s workplace. In the tech industry, with the prevalence of layoffs, it can be very challenging to be a people leader or a HR professional. A high proportion of those laid off have been in people leader roles, and those who ‘survive’ layoffs can be concerned that they will be next. They are also expected to ‘do more with less’. Telling employees they have been laid off can have negative health impact on those whose responsibility it is to break the news.

Of course, some organisations prefer to just send an email. There is no situation where this is okay! And let’s not kid ourselves that big tech organisations have a group of ‘low performers’ just waiting to be laid off. This is not how these organisations operate! It is unforgiveable to label those being laid off as ‘low performers’. How about examining the part senior leaders played in leading the organisation to a position where they felt the need to lay off so many people (often multiple times)? But I digress… Let’s focus on how we can support people leaders.

Who supports the people leaders?

Let’s use an example of the Engineering Manager. I see this role as one of the hardest and most crucial roles in Software Engineering leadership. This role is a connection point between senior leadership and the team. Engineering Managers need to build strong partnering relationships across the tech and product organisation and beyond. They need to operate strategically and tactically, translating high level organisational goals and supporting the team to focus on delivery of key objectives. They are expected to protect the team from noise, allowing them to focus. They are usually operating under significant time pressure. They listen to and support the resolution of challenges the team are experiencing, individually and collectively. They provide emotional support to team members. Engineering Managers adapt their leadership style to support individual team members to work at their best. They create the conditions where the team can be better than the sum of its parts. To do this job well, they need to be self-aware, to have empathy and to be good listeners. Engineering Managers have conversations with their team members to understand their career goals, and to help identify opportunities for personal growth. This role is the backbone of software engineering and is often undervalued and these leaders are often unsupported. Of course, this is true for ‘middle manager’ roles across various industries. I hear from many people in similar level roles who are focused on supporting their team to be successful, but do not feel a similar level of support themselves.

Empathic leadership:

Sometimes when a leader says they feel overwhelmed, they are met with an unempathetic response telling them that they need to be more resilient. This can be like recommending an individual solution to an organisational problem. If team leaders don’t feel like their people leader has their back, how can they support their teams to achieve key goals? Senior leaders must consider how they can better support their leaders to show up at their best for their teams.

This starts at the top by creating Psychological Safety where employees feel safe to share ideas, raise concerns and acknowledge mistakes. It requires vulnerability, transparency and openness. You can’t have innovation without Psychological Safety. It is important that leaders clearly communicate to team members how they value and recognise their impact. Don’t underestimate the power of a thank you! Leaders can act as sponsors, advocating on behalf of their team members, speaking about them when they are not in the room. Creating space for regular one to ones to check in is vital. As well as focusing on tactical updates, some check-ins should be dedicated to career conversations. Leaders should know about their team members’ career aspirations so they can support them to find opportunities to learn and grow, and to sustain themselves across their career.

The term “sustainability” originally was derived from research on the environment and refers to the use of resources in a way that prevents their depletion and retains them for future generations. From an employment context it is about creating the conditions where employees can make a valuable contribution now, and in the future. Instead of focusing on the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit, it seems like the key focus is profit, at the expense of people and planet. What we need right now is empathetic leadership! When you support someone during a difficult time, they will remember it forever. To quote Maya Angelou “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. How are you going to show up as a leader?

References & Links:

Adler, S. et al. (2016) ‘Getting Rid of Performance Ratings: Genius or Folly? A Debate’, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(2), pp. 219–252. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.106.

Brené Brown, Adam Grant & Simon Sinek - Podcast from Oct 2022: https://brenebrown.com/podcast/whats-happening-at-work-part-1-of-2

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, NY: Plenum. 

Dignan, A.: How to revolutionise the way we work

Edmondson, A. - Psychological Safety: https://amycedmondson.com/psychological-safety

https://forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2024/03/18/layoffs-and-pay-cuts-hit-ceos-and-managers/

The innovation show – The 4 stages of Psychological Safety: https://theinnovationshow.io/episode/the-4-stages-of-psychological-safety-with-tim-clark/

The tone is set at the top: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/