I’ve worked for leaders who inspired just this kind of commitment, engagement and motivation. I would attempt Herculean achievements for them. It was a pleasure to be in their company. They made me feel respected, foremost. They demonstrated by their behavior and their words that I was needed and important to the success of the organization. And I respected them for what they knew, their skills and their own demonstration of commitment. I noticed that they worked just as hard as everyone else did, including doing the mundane tasks that we all had to do. They filled the stapler and the printer ink when they ran out. They worked on the weekend when everyone else was asked to. They were aware of my breaking point and found ways to reduce pressure when it was important for my health. They fundamentally cared about me as a human being.
There’s a huge focus on culture and leadership of late. The “Great Resignation”, “Quiet Quitting” and other catchy phrases have popped up, meant to capture a supposed new trend in employee attitudes. These patterns describe a situation that has been nothing if not perennial, rather than novel. Whenever crises occur for an organization, a country or the world, motivations are tested and people can decide to make a change. Some of you may remember the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-2009, and the resulting Great Recession that took seven years to dig out of. Prior to that we had other global economic storms. Each such crisis tested leaders, and the commitments of the people in those organizations.
Just like those earlier calamities, during the stresses of the pandemic, then the supply chain earthquakes and now the leveling off of demand, organizations have asked their people to walk through metaphorical brick walls that require every ounce of very real energy. The more engaged organizations, with stronger relationships and the kind of leaders who do inspire willingness to do the brick battering, fared far better than others without those elements.
But even those close-knit companies risk tattered threads if they forget that leadership must still earn followers in the same exact ways it has always been earned, since the time when workers escaped indentured servitude. Taking that commitment for granted is the first step in destroying it. The conscious leader, the servant leader, continually asks “Why would someone walk through a brick wall for me?” If the leader cannot articulate fresh reasons similar to the opening of this article, then the answer is, “They wouldn’t”.
And they really shouldn’t.