If your people know you care about them, they will move mountains.
Employee engagement and loyalty expert Heather Younger outlines nine
ways to manifest the radical power of caring support in the workplace.
Heather Younger argues that if you are looking for increased
productivity, customer satisfaction, or employee engagement, you need to
care for your employees first. People will go the extra mile for leaders
who show they are genuinely concerned not just with what employees can
do but with who they are and can become. But while most leaders think of
themselves as caring leaders, not all demonstrate that care in
consistent ways. Your employees will judge you by your actions, not your
intentions.
Based on Younger's interviews with over eighty leaders for her podcast
Leadership with Heart--including Howard Behar, former president of the
Starbucks Coffee Company; Judith Scimone, senior vice president and
chief talent officer at MetLife; Garry Ridge, CEO and chairman of the
board of the WD-40 Company; and Shawnté Cox Holland, head of culture and
engagement at Vanguard--this book outlines nine ways that leaders can
make all employees feel included and cared for. She even provides access
to a self-assessment so you can measure your progress as a caring
leader. But this is not a cookie-cutter approach: just as Monet and
Picasso expressed themselves very differently, each leader should
express caring in his or her own unique, personal style.
Younger takes an often nebulous, subjective concept and makes it
concrete and actionable. Leaders have the power to change the lives of
those they lead. They shouldn't just want to care, they should see
caring as imperative for the success of their employees and their
organization.
