The well-being of our employees is part of a leadership portfolio that is complex, messy, and increasingly magnified, and rightfully so. Building enough widgets at the widget factory is no longer enough. Now the employees making the widgets must feel good about doing so, or risk them leaving for brighter pastures in the world of widget-making.
Focusing on employee well-being in your leadership style can seem daunting, and that’s fair. But that’s what I’m here for. This is Blog #1 of a three-part series on different styles of leadership that are supported by research and practically driven on how to lead for well-being.
It Starts with Caring
Whether you are a longstanding leader needing to fine tune your style, or a brand-new leader trying to find your footing, I always recommend starting with Care-Based Leadership. At its core, care-based leadership is leadership that demonstrates an individual level of care and concern for all of those who you lead. This does not need to be the same level of care you show to your utmost inner circle. That’s unrealistic and, frankly, exhausting. However, it does require a degree of caring. Research would indicate that if you demonstrate caring, others will follow suit and outwardly demonstrate the same thing (Erkutlu & Chafra, 2016).
How Do I Show that I Care?
I really care, but I’m not really into this mushy stuff; how do I show that I care? What if there are some things that I, honestly, could not care less about? All excellent questions. Again, I’m not asking you to become best friends with everyone you work with. You don’t want to overburden yourself. However, there are some ways you can show individualized care that don’t require you to hear all about juicy weekend details or become a hugger.
Tip 1: Recognize and Appreciate
Your employees work hard, bring a lot to the table, and are very good at what they do. Recognizing the work that they do AND appreciating the attributes that they bring to your team are imperative for your employees’ well-being. It’s important to note that a lack of recognition and appreciation, understandably, have an adverse effect. Our own WorkWell data indicates that employees with unhealthy recognition scores are 5 times more likely to be looking for a new job compared to those with a healthy recognition score. Therefore, you should establish what you want to recognize, learn how your employees like to be recognized, and then implement.
Tip 2: Show Emotional Intelligence & Empathize
Emotional intelligence is understanding and managing your own emotions, and the emotions of others as well (Gagnon, 2023). It’s knowing what makes you happy, sad, stressed, frustrated, and everything in between, and then managing that in a professional way. The more you work with members of your team, the stronger of a grasp you’ll have on this as well. One of the biggest skills to enhance when it comes to emotional intelligence is empathy. When you’re effectively empathizing with someone, you are understanding that how they are feeling is valid, even if you don’t share the emotion. For example, prepping for a presentation may not be stressful for you as a leader; you’ve done hundreds of them, and you’re so used to it. However, it may be an enormous stressor for a member of your team. Empathizing is using phrases like “I understand,” and “That is completely valid.”
Tip 3: Show that You Take Care of Yourself
First and foremost, let’s address the most important piece here, self-care makes you a better leader. It gives you more bandwidth to do things like recognize and empathize, for example. It allows you to be a more proactive leader while increasing your self-awareness! What may be most important is that if your team members see you looking after yourself, it lets them know it’s ok to look after themselves. Believe it or not, your well-being impacts that of your team members. If you positively role model what well-being looks like, employees will follow suit, taking more of that burden off of you to always make sure they are well (Klug, Feife, & Krick, 2022). So not only do things for you but show it to others as well!
In future blog posts, I will also be talking about leading actively and leading with humility. If leading for well-being interests you and you would like to learn more, you are in luck. I would love to see you join us for our Leading for Well-being Leadership certification, starting in February. Interested? Reach out to me.
