A key component of authentic leadership is ‘trust’. To put your trust in someone or something is a belief that you will not be harmed or let down.
In human relationships this also encompasses a belief in the honesty, integrity and judgement of the person being trusted. Trust plays an important role in leadership because without it, there would be no followership.
Leadership plays a crucial role in shaping organizational culture and influencing employee morale. Leaders set the tone by modelling behaviours and articulating the organization’s core values.
Effective communication, accountability, and recognition also contribute to a positive culture and increased morale. Inspirational leaders who build trust, empower their teams, and resolve conflicts create a conducive work environment.
Employees make decisions every day about whether to contribute to others and their willingness to help is crucial to group and organizational effectiveness. But in a competitive, often zero-sum, world of work, generosity can be a dangerous path. How can leaders foster it without cutting into productivity, undermining fairness, and allowing employees to become doormats.
You could use the analogy similar to a bank account, in my last book, “The Trust Paradigm”, I discuss the emotional bank account with the people in our lives.
The need to make constant deposits to enrich the relationship. If there are constant withdrawals from an account, we become bankrupt. An emotional bank account speaks of the trust that we have built in a relationship. The feeling of safety that we feel with another human.
Children feel safe with their parents because they know that come what may, they are there in their hour of need.
The deposits are in the form of courtesy, kindness, honesty and keeping your promise to another human being. If we are unreliable, disrespectful, ignoring or threatening to another person then these are withdrawals that eventually sour the relationship.
I was asked recently to read “Give and Take: A revolutionary approach to Success” by Adam Grant. It is an inspired read.
In his book, Adam Grant dives deep into the spectrum of altruistic to selfish personalities. Anyone, who reads the book, might be able to identify his or her own personal traits. It can differ in your personal and professional lives.
Moreover, as Adam Grant shows, you can apply the principles of giving and taking even in companies or communities. The book shows and encourages the benefits of giving instead of taking. Furthermore, it dives into the role of a giving personality and shows ways to avoid being exploited.
An interesting topic in leadership is how we establish and use dominance, we gain influence because others see us as strong, powerful and authoritative. When we earn prestige, we become influential because others respect and admire us.
‘Givers’ and ‘Takers’ behave differently in their interaction with others and how they stand to gain or lose out because of their innate personality. It came as no surprise that Grant was trying to advocate for people to be more ‘Takers’ than ‘Givers’, but he gives readers enough information on both sides for us to decide for ourselves the identity we want to take depending on the situation.
Very simply, ‘Takers’ are people who try to claim as much value from others as they can, while ‘Givers’ contribute value without fear of not getting their contribution reciprocated.
An interesting study at a Fortune 500 software company, a group of engineers worried that they had taken generosity too far. They had developed a norm of dropping everything to help their colleagues. The team was working on the code for a new laser printer, but frequent interruptions were delaying progress.
To avoid falling further behind schedule, a few of the engineers stopped giving. One said, “I am careful not to establish a reputation for being helpful, because people would come to me all the time.”
Another made a habit of snapping at colleagues who interrupted with requests. “You have to be rude,” he confessed, “or people will walk all over you.”
But most of the engineers knew that the success of the product depended on sharing expertise, and they ended up helping others during the day and working nights and weekends to finish their own tasks. This wasn’t a sustainable solution. Many sacrificed sleep and burned out, and the interruptions started spilling over into nights and weekends.
Leslie Perlow, a Harvard Business School professor, proposed a solution. The engineers could set aside windows during which they were not allowed to interrupt one another. After some trial and error, the team earmarked Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 AM until noon for quiet time, leaving the rest of the week for collaborative work, including helping one another solve problems.
Perlow found that the quiet time yielded above-average productivity for 65% of the engineers. Three months later the team launched the laser printer, right on schedule. It was only the second time in the history of the division that a product had launched without delays, and the vice president credited the quiet time as the reason.
Look at any group of people you would characterize as givers. You’ll find some who are reluctant to advocate for their own interests, some who are willing to drop everything to help anyone at any time, and some who are easily manipulated by empathy. But none of these behaviours is a necessary condition for generosity. To foster productive patterns of giving, leaders need to help employees understand these traps and provide strategies for avoiding them.
There are three payoffs associated with teaching employees about the power of agency, boundaries on availability, and perspective taking.
The first is saving your best employees those who exemplify collegial generosity from being taken advantage of and helping them to gain stature as successful givers instead.
The second is enabling employees who fear the risks of giving to contribute more to others and to the success of the enterprise.
The third is creating a culture of and reputation for generosity that attracts more givers to your organization and appeals less to takers.
Developing a refined view of generosity will help resolve a fundamental dilemma that ambitious professionals face today: Although giving behaviour is beneficial to organizations and ardently praised in the abstract by leaders, it often comes at the expense of those who engage in it.
Bill Gates was quoted by saying “There are two great forces of human nature: self-interest and caring for others.”
In many organizations, those forces come together with damaging effect. With thoughtful management, however, they can be yoked in such a way that caring for others becomes the best strategy for the most ambitious. Givers can become comfortable asking for favours as well as granting them.
Time can be spared for others’ projects but also protected for one’s own. Generosity can be guided in the direction of greatest impact. And organizations can gain ever-increasing benefits from the constant give-and-take.
I’ve studied and written quite a bit about core values as they relate to leadership effectiveness and the ability for an organization to build high-performance teams and drive the best possible business outcomes. I have explored the impact of core values on organizational development.
Behavioural norms and leadership competencies is the very foundation of how we emotionally connect to each other.
Most successful organizations that have heathy growth, sustainability and profitability, understand the importance of shared values and the connection to improved communication, building stronger relationships, and increased performance and results.
But without values-based leadership, there can be no real authenticity to the guiding principles an organization seeks to live and operate by.
Values-based leadership instils a common set of values in all employees, improving their cohesiveness and willingness to work together. Knowing that a leader or manager has similar beliefs often encourages employees to follow their instruction, increasing the chance of success with every goal.
This enhances engagement, performance, and even retention all which foster growth and profitability. Values-based leaders have specific traits and other qualities that make them the best at what they do.
Finally, a shared set of values in a team lends way to greater alignment. With the help of this alignment, employees and managers are free to communicate with each other, even on sensitive subjects.
Everyone is more open about their thoughts and opinions. It also improves communication with those outside the organisation by bridging the gap between company and client.
With stronger relationships people who have similar values to each other and to those of the organization will build stronger bonds, look out for each other, and engage in more meaningful interactions than those who renege.
Higher levels of performance generally derive from a high growth mindset, values-based leaders drive higher levels of performance by selecting and developing talent that connect with the purpose and mission of the organization.
A strong cultural environment, team members are willing to give more of their time, abilities and energy in achieving common goals. They put the team’s needs before their own.
Deval Patrick, Former United States Assistant Attorney General, once said:
“I very much believe in values-based leadership and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values.”
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