The boss-worker relationship has existed for millennia, and it is changing shape
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This article is not about the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace (well, not really), nor is it about quiet-quitting (again, not really). It is about workplace expectations and what leaders must do to change approaches and show up for the people in their team in different ways.
Workplaces for many years have been transactional. Someone needs something done, and someone else can do it, then they exchange time and expertise for money. Then organisational psychologists and business thought leaders got involved, and books were written ascribing the benefits that can be gained through increasing belonging, safety, and trust in leadership.
Over time there has been a gradual progression from a labour-focused workforce, to a thought (or cognitive) focused workforce, and now finally to a change-focused workforce. Each of these has required an evolution of the worker, and more importantly an evolution of the relationships that exist at work.
In a labour-focused workplace, there is a reliance on your upstream co-worker to do what they need, so you could do what you need. This evolved to a reliance on collective thinking and people who can ideate, coupled with people who can plan, with those who can execute in a thought/cognitive focused workplace.
But what is the team dynamic required in a change-focused workplace? The dynamic is to unlock the full potential of everyone in the team by embracing the whole person and creating a deep connection between that whole person and every other whole person in the team, then scaling that through the organisation.
Before I get into how to help with this transition, I first want to describe what is occurring, and why this evolution matters.
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Gartner’s six identified areas of change in the workplace
In 2022, research group Gartner re-published an article identifying the ways the workplace will change in the next 10 years. Originally published in 2019, it was updated due to the acceleration of these transitions during the pandemic. As a leader and manager within a Fortune 100 company, I recognise it is a transition that is already well underway. Let me take you through the six changes and identify how this couples back to skills development in handling change.
- Middle Management will have different responsibilities. Gartner explores that traditional middle management responsibilities of setting goals and monitoring performance (arms-length management) will change to a requirement to be a great coach or teacher, operate with empathy, and do so across larger teams. The first and second-level leaders cannot be involved in every aspect of the work and will require focus on upskilling the team to be able to handle arising issues.
- Upskilling and digital dexterity will outweigh tenure and experience. Gartner reflects on the cognitive nature of work and the requirement to apply creativity, critical thinking and constant digital upskilling to new and novel problems. A digital economy, impatient customers, and emerging problems will require new ideas, information and models. In this, continuous learning becomes the most vital skill for employees.
- Employee data collection will expand. During the pandemic and a transition from full office, to fully remote (for a period) occurred in many workplaces, employee monitoring also increased. Gartner analysis indicates that 16% of employers use monitoring technologies. Most people see this as an invasion of privacy or a breakdown in trust. But, in the same way, as sports science has invaded sports, these technologies can be used to limit work, initiate time-off protocols, or suggest exercise. Workplaces will want to optimise the human they have employed, not just the employee.
- Smart machines will be our colleagues. A topical point surrounding the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and big data analytics. The accessibility of this technology will force a re-examination of the human-machine relationship and its potential impact on performance and productivity. Could a native AI with access to product information and business objectives, prepare and submit a tender on behalf of the company? Probably. Employees will start to incorporate these tools in advance of company initiatives, and proactive employees will then need to share this information with the rest of the team and company. Coupling back to a requirement for digital dexterity.
- Purpose and passion, and then money. Employees use to see social impact as a thing that happened outside of work, but the realisation that employers have a massive impact on social concerns means that people want to incorporate the meaningful impact into their lives holistically. Employers need to make sure they couple impact into their value statement for employees. This points to hiring a human, not an employee, and humans have personal stories, experiences and successes in various social causes. These need to be embraced by employers.
- Remote work-life balance will reveal challenges. Having the office 10 steps from the bedroom and 15 steps from the kitchen will create a few new tensions. In the drive for upskilling and gaining opportunities on new projects, employees will take on more assignments and work longer hours. Remote work removes the opportunities for ‘collisions’, happenstance conversations and opportunities that occur as people walk to and from the coffee machine, water bubbler, or restrooms. For this reason, employers and leaders need to understand the human and how they need support at any point in time. This relationship may need to be established completely virtually and will require a different skill set than many managers are currently equipped with.
As these shifts are laid out, you will all see different elements of them in your life right now and be able to acknowledge that many of these shifts have already occurred.
The terms boss, manager, and leader are used somewhat interchangeably and generally describe the person we report to. However, these transitions will require a shift from boss to leader — from performance management to human leadership.
The most successful businesses going forward will be those that can be responsive to change, and clearly understand the value than can provide in that change. For an organisation to be responsive and adaptable in changing circumstances, the people within that organisation need to be able to adapt quickly. They need to utilise the foundation of a cognitive workforce, to move towards one that can adapt, and do it well quicker than anyone else.
To create a team of people that can do that, a leader must recognise that it is not what they know or can do that is important, it is who they are and where their strengths lie that will underpin the adaptability of the team.
There are three things you as a leader should introduce to improve your approach to leading the humans in your team.
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Three pivots you need to make now
There are many things you can do to better lead the humans in your team, but the following sections will give you three things that you can introduce and see a change in the dynamics of your team. These are things that I have introduced in several of the projects I have led and continue to see the changes that occur when I do.
Interact with the people, not the professionals
As humans, we tend to label things so that we can process them better. Take someone you interact with at work, Steve, who works in IT, always wears red shoes, and whose tousled hair reminds you of someone who likes the beach. You immediately get a picture of Steve, and could probably pick them out if I forced you to choose from a lineup. Because we associate images with identity, and occupation is part of that identity. There is a reason one of the most frequently asked questions when you meet someone is ‘what do you do for work?’.
This allows us to know a little about someone. But that is no longer enough. You as a leader must transition from interacting with Steve from IT, or Jessica the Project Manager, or Francis the cleaner. You need to interact with Steve, going through a divorce and trying to find an apartment, or Jessica who has had her Uncle and dog die in the last two weeks and needs surgery on an ankle she hurt playing netball. Or Francis gets up at 4 am to train his dog at the agility park and loves his Desert Rose flower collection.
These people need you to show up as a leader in different ways at different times. You need to know when to challenge them, and when to offer them care. You need to know where there may be dormant skills that your current work is not required of them, but could bring value in the future. You need to know what their dreams and aspirations are, and how to focus that enthusiasm for the work at hand. You need to prepare them to handle the inevitable changes that occur through evolution in the workplace and working environment.
To do this, you need to know them in a way that has not been expected of a boss in recent times. Here are things you can include to increase what you know and how to help them grow.
- Use more big talk. We are comfortable with small talk; how was your weekend, what about the weather, anything planned for the public holiday? Start asking things that reveal more about them, a good soft starter is instead of asking how was your weekend? Ask them what was the most exciting thing and hardest thing about their weekend. Instead of asking about any plans for the public holiday? Ask them if they could travel anywhere for just one day, where would you go and why? Instead of asking about the weather, ask them about the hardest thing they’ve done in the last month. You get the idea. Think bigger in your conversations.
- Increase the connective tissue in your organisation. You need to increase your connection with your team, but you also need to increase the connection within the team and then within the organisation. You can stimulate this through your big talk, but it often requires focused effort. Essentially, you need to stimulate uncommon commonality and empathy within the team. To do this I do a few different activities, one every few months. The first and most impactful of these is called the Triple H exercise (no, not the wrestler) which involves each person sharing a personal hardship, highlight, and hero. The next is the ‘10 things in common’ activity, where within the team you need to discover 10 things you all have in common and motivate them to find the uncommon ones. Lastly, have the team create and present their own elevator pitch, a 90-second introduction of themselves, what they do, and why it is important, and then create a space for everyone to share.
- Check in, in public – and have fun together. Something I picked up from Brene Brown is the two-word check-in. An opportunity for everyone in the room or on the call to tell everyone else how they’re feeling, in just two words. Each person shares two things in a moment of reflection. Things that come up are often; tired, caffeinated, excited, uncertain, ready, present, worried, okay, confused, etc. If you do this in public you are giving people permission to bring their whole selves to work and create an opportunity for check-in later if something seems to be troubling someone. In addition, create an opportunity to have fun together. An activity that I have organised is to use Gartic Phone to play a version of Chinese Whispers meets Pictionary. This game takes turns for each person to write a phrase, then have the next person draw it, and then the next interpret it back into a phrase. The evolutions in the drawings are funny, and it allows glimpses of people’s creativity and humour.
Knowing more about people, and their feeling more seen at work creates a foundation for a new type of relationship. Leaders will need to work on their coaching and teaching skills, and their ability to identify and promote strengths. However, the true change will come in creating and fostering the foundational connections formed between the leader and the team, and amongst the team.
Focus on performance, and process — as it supports your people
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, writer Hope Horner describes that people generally focus their leadership in one of three areas; performance, process, and people.
Hope states, ‘I believe most leaders major in one style and minor in another. The major is what they naturally lead with and deem most valuable, while the minor is often a skill they’ve honed over time. Having an awareness of your majors and minors will help you communicate with your team in the most effective way and help them — and your organisation — succeed’.
Hope describes this in far more detail than I will here (it is a great article), but I want to communicate to you that if you are a leader who majors in Process or Performance, you need to start working on People leadership. Once you do this, you then support it with Performance and Process leadership, but your focus needs to change.
I have written about the importance of balancing the tension that exists between challenge and care within the team. My leadership philosophy is to balance this tension, and I’ve written the below to characterise this.
To lead is to see the shape of people — and the empty space in problems, then fit the people to that space and let them grow. If the problem space is too large, the stretch too far, you have failed them. If the problem space is too small, the fit too tight, you have failed them
You must balance the tension between care and challenge to achieve this outcome. You need to understand, know, and empathise with the person to know when you can push them harder and when to pull back.
If you are focused on getting stuff done (performance) or getting stuff done the right way (process), and we all should understand the importance of these, you need to balance it with getting your people to perform at their highest levels.
So, focus on the people and support their growth and the growth of the team/project/company through performance and process.
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Have a focus on feedback and improvement
Most people will tell you that they have a good feedback culture. But from my experience that feedback is generally ad-hoc at best, and restricted to performance reviews (or not at all) at worst. My adage for this is anything you don’t do on purpose, happens by accident.
So, to make this more persistent I have introduced two simple feedback opportunities to almost every engagement with the team and with customers and stakeholders.
Where appropriate, I utilise the Stop, Start, Continue check to identify areas for improvement. What is something I/we should stop doing because it no longer brings value, what is something I/we should start doing because it might bring value, and what is something I/we should continue doing because it absolutely brings value?
Asking this chain of questions forces reflection, and narrowing the focus to the creation of value removes peripheral noise in the feedback conversation.
At other times I also ask, what was the most valuable or important thing for you from that meeting? I do this for two reasons; firstly, it allows an opportunity to gather information on what others have taken away from that interaction, and to focus future efforts on the persistent creation of value. The second reason is that it forces attendees to note that there was something important from that meeting. This creates an attachment of value or importance to that interaction.
However, the focus is creating regular opportunities for feedback, whatever the questions. You and your team need this information to be able to react in a meaningful way when change is required.
And, importantly, you need to just receive the feedback. Do not try and diminish it, b offering caveats or excuses. Just receive it, and say thank you.
This article explores an important dynamic shift occurring within workplaces, and it needs to be happening in yours. You need to show up differently, and you need to start now.
Leaders have been assessed as the single most important contributor to workplace engagement, and employee happiness. You need to make sure your leaders are meeting the needs of your employees and that your employees are prepared for the ever-changing future of their work. You have created a change-focused culture.
I hope this article offers you the insight you need to be able to reflect and adapt and some actionable tips for you to use as a leader in your workplace. What have you seen happening in the workplace, and what adjustments have you made or seen made that impacted the workplace?
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Inspired by life. Leadership, Growth, Personal Development. Engineer and Sports Enthusiast. Top Writer in Leadership. Editor of Sparks Publication. leonpurton.com
By Leon Purton on March 12, 2023.
Exported from Medium on December 22, 2023.
