“Take care of your people and they’ll take care of you.”
Are you the type of leader who remembers every employee’s first name? The kind who sends gift baskets to team members having a rough time or who are recovering from an illness? If you’re not this type, you need to pick up the slack and make those gift baskets extra special for good measure!
Among the many “C’s” in leadership — commitment, communication, collaboration, culture, coaching— to name a few, one stands out among all the rest.
According to Alicia Thrasher, Cofounder & CEO of MGR360 Leadership System training, the most important “C” – is “caring.”
I agree with Alicia 100% when she says that “the people you lead must believe that you care about them and the team above your own personal interests.” Kindness in leadership goes a long way.
It’s also important to remember that caring needs to go beyond what you (or the leadership team) are feeling towards your people, you must also show them. To effectively demonstrate your care for your employees and managers, you must translate this feeling into overt acts.
These acts don’t only mean monetary incentives. One of our HireBetter core value is #ServeWithPassion. For me, this means serving my team with the same fire and enthusiasm that I have for my clients.
Be empathetic. Sometimes, simply asking team members about their children or how their elderly parents are coping will go farther than a salary increase. A regular 15-minute face to face with a young team member to coach them in their career and support their professional development can do wonders for your team’s morale.
Two HireBetter core values that highlight kindness in leadership for me are #DoTheRightThing and #BuildLastingRelationships. If we consistently do the right thing and care deeply for our team, our clients, our candidates, and our community – then we will undoubtedly build lasting relationships.
At the end of the day, people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. They leave leaders. The level of EQ your leadership team has is crucial in retaining your top talent. If your leaders are not demonstrating to your employees that they care, expect a never-ending shuffle of talent. But when caring is part of your core values, work anniversaries will be frequent and many.
