Managers come and managers go but a company persists. It is like it
does not matter at the end how a manager behave, what he or she
does or what core values they inspire, the production and the
company will persists more or less regardless as long as there is
knowledgeable employees who knows what to do.
But it does matter and it does impact us all deeply and with the
leader role comes a big responsibility, not only to make your
company a success but also to create an environment where people
like to be, where they want to work and where they can go home
satisfied.
There is no room for being a di*k, bullying or creating a toxic working
environment.
Stress related diseases are ramping in the world; burnout of people is
getting more and more common. The problem is complex and there is
no one single culprit but a toxic, stressful working environment with
a boss making your life a nightmare is a guaranteed seed for disease
and the ripple effect is exponential.
Who has not had a partner, parent, kid or friend who comes home
and complains on a daily basis about their job, their boss and how
much they would love to quit their company?
Most of us have been on the receiving end of this, listening without
being able to really help.
There is no single answer to solve the problem, many has tried and
we all seen our managers go to some new training that would change
them but at the end nothing changed.
It is not possible to change this one would argue. A tight deadline,
customer complaints and shareholder pressure makes it impossible
to create a LaLa environment where people also feel good.
It is possible I would argue and a responsibility of a leader at any
level to create an environment where people thrive, can unleash their
creativity and being met by respect, humanity and a listening ear.
It all starts at the top and ripples down in the organization. A bully on
the top will create bullies further down in the hierarchy and a human
leader on the top will set the tone for the whole organization.
My friend who is a beekeeper just was given a beehive someone
wanted to get rid of because the bees were so aggressive. We are
here talking roughly 50.000 bees inside with an aggressive behavior.
All he had to do to change the aggressive behavior of the bees was to
take the Queen out who created the toxic environment and replace
her with a nice Queen. Within three days the bees had completely
changed behavior and the aggressiveness was gone.
Behavior trickles down!
We are humans not bees (though also the new bee Queen is in danger
of being eaten alive the first days before she is accepted) so there will
always be glitches and nobody is perfect but all managers out there
have a responsibility to create a healthy environment for their staff!
With The Corporate Corner we would like to give voice to all kind of
people in various roles in The Corporate World and see how they
have made their careers, how they approach management and how
they would like their boss to be.
