Sticky Solutions
Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges
Queston: I manage a group of people who are mostly around my age, in our mid-30’s. We work long hours together and often go to dinner or drinks after work. Recently, over lunch, an older colleague told me to be careful about making friends with my staff. Am I crossing a line between being a manager and friend?
Answer: There was a time when it was considered best for managers to keep a personal distance from their employees. The school of thought was that friendship was a slippery slope to favoritism. Today, however, we understand that leadership is all about relationships. Leaders who build strong relationships with their team are in a better position to empathize with the needs of their diverse workforce and to handle the dynamic shifts in business cycles.
If you think about it, there are a lot of similarities between being a good friend and a good leader. We all want both friends and leaders who can hold us accountable without being unkind, and with whom we can be honest. We want friends and leaders who genuinely solicit our advice, but who are strong enough to take decisive action. We want friends and leaders that we can confide in and trust, without worrying that they will gossip about us with others.
You don’t have to be bossy or distant to be an effective leader. When you apply the principles of being a trusted friend to your leadership role, you’ll find that the line between friendship and leadership becomes invisible.
Sticky Solutions
Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges
Question: My manager told me to let my team fail. I am reluctant to let that happen. I don’t want to disappoint our customers or demotivate my team. Do you have any suggestions for me?
Answer: When your manager tells you to “let people fail,” it’s likely meant to encourage you to empower your people, let go of the details, take a step back, and be willing to let your people mess up from time to time. If team members never get a chance to risk failure, you may be too protective of them. Failure can be a powerful teacher.
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Sticky Solutions
Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges
Question: Are leaders born or made?
Answer: Good question. It’s one that we get asked a lot. Many people assume that leaders are born. They come into the world with a natural capacity to lead. This is the basic tenet of the great man theory, popularized by historian Thomas Carlyle in the 19th century. The mythology behind some of the world’s most famous leaders helped contribute to this notion. Think Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. Carlyle suggested that effective leaders were those gifted with divine inspiration and the right characteristics to take control of a situation and lead people to safety or success.
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Sticky Solutions
Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges
Dear CEE,
My company was acquired by a much larger organization two years ago. Since the acquisition, I’ve noticed that our employees no longer seem actively engaged. We’ve lost touch with the culture that once made us proud to be a part of the company. I would like to propose to our new executive team that I take on a role that gets us back in touch with the culture that makes us proud. What title do you suggest, and how might I go about proposing the new role to my executive team?
-Cultureless VP
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Dear Cultureless,
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Many companies are adding a Chief Culture Officer (CCO) to connect employees with not only what business they are in, but more importantly, why they are in business. We suggest that you prepare a business case for the new role to underscore how culture impacts the bottom line. Look at metrics like employee engagement, voluntary turnover, and net promoter score. Is there is significant difference in these metrics at your business unit from pre- to post-acquisition? Is there a significant difference between your business unit and other business units? Also, be prepared to show how the CCO would work in collaboration with Human Resources to:
- Evaluate how the existing culture aligns with the company’s strategic objectives
- Define organizational goals and align departments effectively to support strategic objectives
- Collaborate with management to develop action plans focused on building trust, increasing employee engagement, satisfaction, productivity and retention
- Build and successfully drive key culture initiatives to positively influence business outcomes
We admire the passion you have for your team, and insight you share about culture. Thank you for sharing, and keep in touch with us along your journey!
-CEE Team
