Take, for instance, the recent conversation with William Baker (on the Feb 5 Charlie Rose show) about Dr. Baker's new book "Leading with Kindness". Bill Baker, for those who do not know him, is a long time leader in public television in America. It turns out the Dr. Baker also has a Ph.D. in industrial psychology. "So what" you ask? The "so what" is that Dr. Baker's recent book explores the link between leaders who are "kind" and leaders who are "effective". The bottom line is this: you can lead people using fear, but only for a short while. Ultimately, people respond far more to kind treatment. My favorite quote from Dr. Baker was this:
People are willing to put out more than you can imagine if they feel they are being treated fairly
And again, you might say "so what?" We've heard all this before. It sounds like a lot of fluff from someone who pines for the good ol' days when we didn't have global competition. But the world is a harsh place now, right? I recently had someone who is taking a work-life class from me ask "Paul, isn't it foolish to be focusing on work-life now?"
No! It's just the opposite; now is perhaps the most important time to be focused on work-life. Let me give you just two of Dr. Bakers profound statistics (from a large survey he conducted for his book):
- In answer to the question "I speak openly and candidly with my boss" (meaning, I tell him or her what he or she really needs to hear), for those who said they had a bully boss, 42% responded positively. But for those who had kind bosses, the 73% responded positively.
- In answer to the question "My boss really listens to what I say" (meaning what I tell him or her gets passed up the line), for those with a bully boss, only 23% responded positively. For those with a kind boss, 84% responded positively
Now think back to the financial melt down and the number of CEOs of financial institutions who said they had no idea what was going on. It could be they really didn't know. In fact, as the statistics above prove, if you have a hard line, uncaring environment, you will not know what is going on because your employees simply will not tell you. If you are running a company you must rely on the information of the people around you. If you don't get the straight story from them, you will run your company right over the cliff.
How does all this relate to work-life? Think about our current situation. So many companies have pared down and cut back. So many employees are feeling uncertain about their lives. The air is thick with fear. More importantly, the employees who are left are your best; they are the ones you have to keep, and you are heaping more and more work on them. They must perform at their peak if your company is to survive. And as we have just seen, kindness can drive far more productivity than fear. Kindness is essential to corporate survival.
So how do you show kindness? A simple and cheap way is through work-life. And by this I am not talking about giving up any business goals. I mean just the opposite. Keep your business goals, drive your people as hard as you must, but recognize they are, in fact, people, and do something tangible to teach them specific skills to handle high demands on their time. That is a kindness that will add to the bottom line, not subtract.
Don't believe me? I dare you to try it. After all, only your entire company is at stake. And if you are driving your people with fear, how long do you think they will stay after the recovery kicks in?
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