One thing I’m noticing and watching closely is a growing relational disconnect between employers and employees. This is apparent in the prevailing viral LI posts, media, and our personal experiences here at ASG.
We believe there is something here for all of us to learn from. We also believe this is intrinsically related to the overall leadership quotient in America.
Employees often fail to understand what employers value and perceive as high-performance. Their view is often myopic, considering too much their own interests and not those they work for.
Employers often fail to understand the importance quality employees place on their goals and personal growth. They can treat people as relatively expendable and utilitarian, forgoing the value of personal connection as if work is only about professional performance. Instead of being a mentor, they are a boss.
To be successful as either an employer or employee, you have to care about people, and properly at that. This is a never-ending learning process. It’s complicated, messy, and often exhausting. To be clear, there are MANY fair objections to this broad idea of ‘caring about people’.
To understand more about what I mean about ‘caring about people’ consider reading the book “Love & Profit.” The distillation is that caring about people is entirely connected to holding them accountable, even to the point of letting them go.
I’m willing to say that to lead people well, you must care about them.
Success in the workplace, more than ever it seems, is directly connected to people skills no matter where on the org chart one works. Those that can embrace a mindset of winning and losing together can build or participate in great teams. But there is a growing contingent of the workforce and company leaders who fail to understand how important the other is. Corporate layoffs to prop up short-term stock prices on one hand and mercenary job-hopping on the other. Each is out for their own, to the collective long-term detriment.
We have no lack of books on leadership but are we, Americans, losing our grip on what real leadership and teamwork is in the real world? It’s a big deal. Wars are won and lost on leadership quotient.
“The fish rots from the head”
-ancient proverb
It’s not hard to see other failures of leadership. Our politicians obviously and the increasingly polarized positions, many of our hallowed institutions are constantly rocked by scandals, crony capitalism abounds, and a general decrease in the trust we can afford to place in one another. These are connected.
Leadership is the solution. Turn the org chart upside down.
To those struggling to be better leaders at any level, we salute you.
The short version.
- Why is the disconnect between employers and employees growing?
- Because each side misunderstands what the other values. Employees often view work myopically, weighing their own interests over those of the people they work for, while employers treat quality people as expendable and utilitarian, acting as bosses instead of mentors and ignoring personal goals and growth. Corporate layoffs to prop up stock prices on one side and mercenary job-hopping on the other feed the same long-term damage.
- What does it mean for a leader to truly care about people?
- Caring about people is inseparable from holding them accountable, even to the point of letting them go the right way. The book Love and Profit distills this idea: genuine care is not softness but a complicated, messy, never-ending discipline. To lead people well, you must care about them.
- Are people skills really essential to success at work?
- Yes, more than ever, and at every level of the org chart. Those who embrace a mindset of winning and losing together can build or join great teams, while those out only for themselves erode trust to everyone's long-term detriment. Success now depends on relational skill as much as technical performance.
- What is the fix for a leadership problem in a company or a country?
- Better leadership itself, starting with turning the org chart upside down so leaders serve the people they direct. The proverb applies: the fish rots from the head. Polarized politics, institutional scandals, and eroding trust are connected symptoms of the same failure, and the answer at every level is leaders who care about the people they lead.
