The blindspot you want to avoid
Successful leaders know that you have to genuinely care for your people and if not taken seriously, can be a damaging blindspot.
You can have the best hiring practices, the best IT systems, the best training, the best compensation schemes, the best processes but all of this is pointless if someone believes you do not care about them as a human being. And this care must be completely independent of the value they bring to your organization.
What most people don’t realize is, in spite of the fact that you genuinely care about your people, some people still believe you do not care for them. This is way more common than we generally think because some two-thirds of all workers are not engaged in their work, which I believe is a symptom of feeling uncared for.
Here’s the thing, without exception, almost every leader, CEO and business owner I know genuinely cares for their people. The problem arises when you believe your people actually know this. If you think your people know you care for them, I believe you’ve identified one of your biggest blindspots as a leader.
Letting people know you care should be considered like any important communication. You can’t do it just once and expect the message to stick. You need to think they’ve forgotten you care for them and you need to let people know you care by repeating it over and over again.
Expressing and experiencing gratitude is one of the most effective ways to let people know you care. Gratitude helps connect you with people throughout your organization—up, down and sideways—and reinforces the genuine care you have for them as individuals.
I believe expressing gratitude is important not just because it’s good for business but because it’s the right thing to do.
