In this episode of Quick Clarity, Angie and Jeff discuss a new job role CEOs are feeling increasing pressure to fill and leaving them asking…
“Do I have to be a therapist for my employees?”
“How do I motivate my team after experiencing a layoff?”
Jeff tackles this question by sharing his reflections as a CEO, Hiring Manager, Coach, and Company Co-Founder. Angie outlines what questions to reflect on when looking to action and solve the systems creating these issues.
For those who prefer to read, a full transcript of this episode is available after the Quick Links below.
Quick Links
“Am I a Therapist Now?”
The short answer? Of course not! However, a few things come to mind when we examine this question.
[2:45] - Generally, we don’t love generational analysis; however, a pattern seems to emerge here with older leaders we work with. Often when we delve deeper into the question, “Do I have to be a therapist for my employees” we find it is rooted in the past idea of work, the fear of being unable to meet the changing needs of the business world, and the confusion of how to solve the issues employees are raising. In the past, work was entirely used for economic security, often at the expense of autonomy, dreams, and potential. This created a system of suppression, which served as a form of submission to the whims of the current leadership. This is not a model employees want to continue operating under.
[10:13] - When we hear people come to us with these questions, we refuse to believe that the entire employee base has suddenly become a group of weak creatures. We talk with so many leaders, and some are well-equipped for the current needs of modern businesses. Often inside the confusion these problems create emerges a BSL narrative of either attempting to blame yourself or others. We ask, is this a personal problem for you or a problem with a fundamental reality of human beings? This reality is not only actionable, but that understanding it becomes a massive advantage. Don’t get mad, don’t get even, get ahead. When your employees and team members come to you with their issues, they give you the most sacred thing imaginable—their trust. Trust is foundational to a successful modern business. People will follow their emotions no matter how hard we try or how many specialized systems we create. When someone provides you with the opportunity to build that trust, you have to be open to it and communicative, or you risk not only forgoing a chance at meaningful growth but causing damage to the organization itself. Unfortunately, you do not determine when or how this will happen, let alone if it will happen. The actual choice you are faced with when trying to avoid these scenarios is either
[20:07] - We have a lot of empathy for leadership struggling with the added load of these expectations. We are not claiming that it is not difficult, and we are not expecting these changes to happen overnight. However, we are asking you to accept the reality of the situation you have placed yourself in.
[22:33] - How do we investigate and solve the issues being brought to me?
[30:05] - How do I motivate my team after experiencing a layoff/RIF (Reduction In Force)?
People often ask how I get my team back to work after experiencing a traumatic event. To be clear, the failure of leadership had to happen before the RIF for that to happen, so if you were incompetent as a leader before the RIF, what makes you competent afterward? The reality of being a leader is that you will make mistakes. If you are not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough. However, when you make mistakes, they affect the people around you. Simple mistakes for you can become profound mistakes for others. When you make a mistake, people don’t want to think you won’t make them; they want to know you will learn from them and not make the same mistake again. Unfortunately, we often see large-scale issues and RIFs being treated by leaders as something that happened to them. Frankly, who would trust a leader who treats people’s livelihoods that way? It didn’t happen to you; you didn’t do your job well. You have to take personal responsibility for the mistakes, and you have to be able to share your learnings to make a brighter future. Simply saying “I’m sorry” is cheap; you must learn from your mistakes and give people hope for a future with the company. Narcissism is the easiest way to blow up your trust with people, and that trust is fundamental!!!
[36:00] It’s The New Saying Among Tech CEOs: I Apologize by M. Bobrowsky, Wall Street Journal.
[40:43] - You have to anchor to the meaning. People show up to work and have creativity, promise, and potential, which is what you’re paying hard capital for. When those people get confused, you must create a system and help them get back on their path. Not only because it makes the shareholders happy but more importantly because that’s when your team goes home from a day of work and feels pride. And that pride ripples throughout their life. So why does the work matter, and how can you help anchor your people to that meaning to get through the toughest times? Vision is universal, but the meaning is individual, and the first point of contact in large corporations is usually the managers. The leader paints a vision, but the purpose comes from the work. Management is responsible for creating an environment of people connecting to their meaning in the work. (check back for more on this, Jeff and Angie will be continuing their conversation on another episode)
