The Real Reason Your Employees Don’t Follow You

You don’t deserve to be a successful leader — you deserve the chance to work to become one.

Our world lives on the backbone of leaders, and the bottom line is there aren’t enough good ones to go around.

Whether you are looking in the political arena, the entertainment industry, or the corporate realm — leadership is the most cherished human capital in any organization — even education isn’t exempt.

Remember that teacher in school that made all the difference in your life?

That’s leadership.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way — John C. Maxwell

Leaders cannot do it on their own as having followers is the pre-condition required.

However, some things don’t last.

People come
People go.

In truth, if a cog does not work correctly in a machine, the entire machine seizes to function, regardless of the small but important role an individual may contribute in an organization. As a leader, it’s your job to hold the fuel line, because the corporate machine must not stop.

Replacing one or two minor cogs in a machine — a piece of cake — but what if there is a trend developing, and things may spiral out of control.

Do you feel that?
That little tugging sensation in your heart?

You are afraid.

• You’re afraid of the concerned looks of the directors.
• You’re afraid that you’ll have a meeting with HR.
• You’re afraid that your leadership is in jeopardy.

You don’t deserve to be a successful leader — you deserve the chance to work to become one.

Be Authentic

Leadership is a relationship between leaders and their followers.

However, there is a growing suspicion with the airbrushed leaders that stand in feet of clay. And if you thought that traditional sources of leadership legitimacy such as age, seniority, and fancy job titles mean something to your employees, think again.

People want to be led by someone real, authentic leadership is not something we do to other people but instead, it is something we do with other people. You’re not some corporate slog — NO — You, my friend, you’re in it to win, you’re in there with the rest of them, standing side by side, fight the good fight. Like a platoon commander on the eve of battle, you lead your followers the way that brought you to the other side.

Corporate stakeholders will want perfection but I’ll be the first to report from the front lines that your employees don’t. They want to work with a leader they can trust to show up transparently. It is exactly what makes authenticity a desirable quality in today’s world.

You walk the talk.

Yet authenticity is largely defined by what other people see in you and, ironically, it is to a great extent controlled by you.

You choose what cards you’ll show and to whom, whether that’s your partner, your friend, or your superior.

Then authenticity reflects the aspects of our inner self that we choose to reveal to whom and when. We become chameleons, ever-adapting ourselves to the predicaments of scenarios and the company we keep.

Not because we shame ourselves to the point of blending into our surroundings, like a wallflower.

But instead, it beckons us to bask in the glory of our inner music — a deep knowledge, appreciation, and demonstration of our inherent personality traits that are congruent with ourselves and the people we are connecting with — while never losing our own identities in the process.

Leaders are not method-actors but instead, they remain within their authentic integrity, selectively conveying their weakness, fostering honest conversations, and revealing their humanity to their followers. They are clear about what they do well and don’t lose sight of where they came from. There is a bold, brash, beauty when coming across someone that has the genuine capacity and passion to rally people behind a common purpose together. The type of individual that knows what they want and how to inspire confidence in others to get it.

Dial Into Your Environment

However, when multiple employees come to you concerned, and usually about the same things, then you know there is trouble brewing paradise.

The fact is that there may be a high probability that they might be right about you — you are that bad apple after all and if your worst nightmares are coming true, afraid or not, then it’s in your best interest to face the music head-on.

Are you experiencing a loss of productivity, a high turnover rate, or increased absenteeism in a particular department? What about lackluster employee satisfaction surveys or even worse, poor reviews on Glassdoor for your competitors to relish?

Many leaders react to this by hiding their heads in the sand and waiting for it to go away — we’ve all been there. I wish I could tell you it goes away but unfortunately that doesn’t happen.

Feedback is always there whether you like it or not. In actuality, it’s impossible not to give feedback. The universal law of cause-and-effect states that for every effect there is a definite cause, likewise for every cause, there is a definite effect.

It occurs when your environment reacts to your actions (and behavior). Feedback then is important across your entire organization for everyone to be in alignment with the goals, strategies, and bottom line.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership — Harvey S. Firestone

To do that, you need to ask the right questions and then listen actively.

Don’t just connect to the grapevine

Be the grapevine.

Instill Value

As a society, we shy away from failure. This has been historically impregnated into our minds as children.

Our educational institutions have created conditions for learning that do not encourage errors and parents have followed suit. In the same light, we assume that if we allow our employees to make mistakes, they won’t learn to correct the assignment.

This is a common misconception.

Learning is enriched through errors — fail harder, and reward the try.

Learning is a rite of passage of how we challenge ourselves to step outside our comfort zones and learn to do things differently. It engages us to try new, innovative approaches to problem-solving.

Our role as leaders is to create an environment that allows employees to learn from their mistakes and take them places, they never even expected to get to.

We learn to succeed. It’s what one of Wall Street’s most successful hedge fund managers, Ray Dalio, called “Finding success in Failure”.

The fact is people want to do good work — period. They want to work for a leader that will magnify their strengths, and fortify their weaknesses.

It’s similar to parenting though with an emphasis on tough empathy — giving your employees what they need, which isn’t always what they want. It balances the respect for the individuum as well as the situation at hand.

It fosters emotional intelligence and social awareness to thoughtfully consider an employee’s feelings and the task objectives but doesn’t mean a leader needs to please everybody. Instead, a leader lends meaningful encouragement and provides opportunities for employees to tap into their internal abilities, thus fostering resilience.

It reminds me of the child that falls and looks to their caregivers to gauge their reaction. The parent may shriek in fright or hold space for the child to get back on their own feet.

Leaders don’t need to rescue subordinates from their mistakes. Instead, the leader trains them to take care of themselves and overcome their own setbacks.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new― Albert Einstein

A leader provides examples of their mistakes, the consequences, and how they learned from them. Together they describe an organization that operates at its fullest potential by allowing people to do their best work.

The ideal leader makes their employees even better and at heart, that’s what productivity improvement means.

Cultivate Differences

Before the days of fire trucks and pressure hoses, people would put out fires by forming a human chain. They would pass a bucket of water from one person to the next, no matter their color, race, or creed.

They just wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

Something they can believe in.

Your employees come from all different walks of life and depending on the individual, they do things a bit differently. As a leader, it is your responsibility in the company to set the expectations while providing the organizational framework that nurtures an employee’s individuality to successfully execute their tasks.

• You establish a culture where opposite types can thrive authentically and work cooperatively.
• This cultivates creative interactions amongst peers and this allows everybody to bring something unique to the table.
• It productively exploits the advantage of differences and builds a more innovative, engaged, and effective workplace.

Team chemistry is important in any office and it’s valuable for any leader to understand and integrate the inherent tensions that arise when a company tries to accommodate differences.

Respecting traditional diversities such as gender, age, race, and ethnicity are fundamental but what if we look through a psychographic lens?

Perspective, core assumptions, and values are equally important and ought to be considered in a company to forge clear incentive systems, key performance indicators, and career paths.

However, fostering individuality comes with the price of organizational solidarity, therefore, it is imperative that a leader reinforces the structure and establishes a company culture that employees can stand behind.

Poor leadership can lead to a breakdown of the team altogether and as much as we wish it to be the case, it will not be the destructive bully leaving our organization but it is our hard-working, high performers that are leaving to remove themselves from the toxic environment that surrounds them.

And speaking of the environment.

• think of a company like a garden
• the soil as the culture
• the employees as plants
• and the leader as its gardener.

First of all, every garden has a purpose and it behooves the leader to actively understand the needs of every unique plant while never neglecting the bigger picture of the whole garden.

Some plants work symbiotically together while others detract from one another — that doesn’t make one plant better or another one worse. It is an ever-shifting ecosystem and good gardeners are great observers. They watch for signs of distress and can predict issues before they happen.

The gardener provides nutritious soil — the backbone of any garden — a type of medium for plant growth no matter the change in weather.

No two years are alike in any company so having a concise way of doing things year in and year out is improbable. As conditions change, a gardener will likely need to change and adapt their strategies and provide the right fertilizers to make every plant that comes under their care flourish. In the same light, a gardener needs to rip out the weeds that are leeching from the purpose of the garden.

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them — Liberty Hyde Bailey

Such are the lives of leaders and there are choices to be made every day in the company that can have an impact on the bottom line.

Leadership Matters

Leaders mobilize individuals to lean into the unknown and struggle for a unified goal. They create an environment where others can grow and realize their fullest potential.

Such leaders are the enablers of talent, culture, and outcomes — they make the world go round.

Guided by a strong moral compass, leaders must be open to new ideas and flexible enough to admit their mistakes in every learning opportunity.

Leadership beckons us to

• take purposeful initiative in expressing our authenticity,
• model inclusiveness, and cultivate differences
• listen actively to instill value, purpose, and resilience

Leadership is a learned behavior that gradually assimilates into our identity.

People don’t need to be told who the leader is, they will already know by the contributions you make.