The corporate world is experiencing a leadership revolution. Over the past decade, companies have increasingly embraced the concept of people leaders – managers whose primary role is to develop and support their teams. While some companies still lag in prioritizing this transformation, the shift is an undeniable and necessary one for success in today’s dynamic workplace.
The Difference Between a Manager and a People Leader
While all people leaders are managers, not all managers are effective people leaders. A manager focuses primarily on achieving business goals, managing projects, and ensuring individual and team performance metrics are met. A people leader takes it one step further. They prioritize the human element, understanding that happy, motivated, and supported employees are key to achieving organizational goals and maintaining high levels of retention.
It is not uncommon to see the titles People Leader and Chief People Officer in modern organizational cultures that prioritize employee engagement, retention, and leadership based on values and trust.
So, What’s Changed?
The corporate landscape has changed over the last decade in ways that are unprecedented, and there’s no indication that things will slow down. In fact, changes will likely only speed up in the near future.
Management layers have routinely been eliminated in reorganizations. As a result, leaders suddenly have more people to manage, coupled with a new steep learning curve.
I have coached many leaders who were working with a certain number of direct employees and seemingly overnight, that number doubled or even tripled in size. At the same time, today’s managers and leaders are also dealing with less resources, agile initiatives, higher demands and constantly changing scenarios and priorities.
For example, hybrid work is still in flux with lots of companies. Amazon is now requiring its workers to be in the office five days a week. It is the largest employer to announce a full-time return to office policy though other major companies such as Tesla and Goldman Sachs have followed suit. Tesla CEO Elon Musk strongly opposes remote work, calling it “morally wrong.”
Despite the ever-changing atmosphere, more and more companies are focusing on leadership performance, as the C-suite is demanding managers to level up their performance and shift their focus.
The outdated leadership model that many companies continue to embrace is a task-focused model with a “me” focus. Essentially, leaders would simply delegate the work and oversee tasks. This functional focus centered around making sure the tasks get done. While this old school model still exists in some organizations, it is becoming much less common. In the new leadership model, the manager focuses on his/her teams and how to make them successful. They work to develop, mentor and coach to level up and inspire their employees.
Management is No Longer a Place to Hide
While today’s managers must still delegate, they engage in that practice with more thoughtfulness, strategy and nuance as they must also balance an increased need for digitization, increased efficiency and a continued focus on DEI. Although the future of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is unknown with the new presidential administration, it is safe to say that companies will continue to find ways to build healthy, inclusive workplace cultures. The acronym may not live on, but research published in Harvard Business Review shows that even during a year of backlash, companies continue to progress many of their initiatives.
Leaders are navigating that volatile environment while they are also expected to drive results and don their HR hats by keeping up with performance feedback as well as hiring and firing personnel.
The business model I observed early in my financial career was one where management was commonly a place one could hide. Managers would dole out a few year-end performance reviews with ratings based on expectations and only actively come into the picture if something went awry. Early in my career, the only woman in our firm’s male-dominated trading division, I was eager to prove myself. My manager Greg (not his real name) was a seasoned professional with a decade of experience under his belt. But it did not take me long to notice Greg was neither an engaged, hands-on manager, nor was he a people leader.
For most of the year, Greg was a ghost. He spent his days in his office, delegating tasks through brief, impersonal meetings. When my annual performance review rolled around in December, Greg’s notes were generic and lacked any specificity about my achievements. I was hoping for insights into my potential or how I could refine my skills, but I just got a “Keep it up – no news is good news” which provided zero motivation for me. Leaders like Greg show what happens when feedback and mentorship are an afterthought. People leaders believe to do their job well, their employees deserve their attention and feedback throughout the year, not just when the calendar demands it. And when the calendar demands it, they put in the time, focus and thoughtfulness to make that that conversation rich, meaningful and insightful.
A Shift from Managing Paperwork to People
As more emphasis is placed on people leaders, it is important to note this shift is happening at all levels, from the C-suite to lower-level management. No matter where you are in your career, these key characteristics are ones you need to master to be a successful people leader:
- Focus on Employee Development: People leaders invest in the growth, skills, and career progression of their team members.
- Shift your Communication from Directive to Instructive: People leaders shift their primary communication from knowledge-based to communication that promotes learning.
- Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: People leaders understand and respond to the needs, concerns, and motivations of their team.
- Effective Communication: People leaders actively listen, provide clear direction, and foster open dialogue.
- Empowerment and Trust: People leaders delegate responsibly and trust their leaders to take ownership of tasks.
- Building Culture: People leaders play a critical role in shaping a positive, inclusive and transparent workplace environment.
- Conflict Resolution: People leaders address and mediate conflicts in a constructive, consistent and fair way.
- Focus on Well-being: People leaders prioritize the mental and physical well-being of their employees.
- Focus on ALL people: People leaders are genuine people leaders for ALL – not only to those who directly serve them and those who are in powerful positions.
The shift of the mindset to be focused on “we” versus “me” requires a tremendous amount of self-awareness, emotional maturity and resilience.
People Leaders are also Mentally Fit
One of the most important skillsets people leaders must embody is a high level of mental fitness, coupled with a positive intent mindset. Some people find this piece to be the most challenging. I often hear from clients, “How do I manage myself much less my employees when I’m overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted?!”
They feel like a tidal wave washes over them every few days. Even when they think they finally got caught up with work – that wave quickly begins to build again. They constantly feel the volume and crushing pressure of the impending wave.
The fallacy is that the problem lies with the job or the company. So, they solve the problem by changing jobs or companies – only to find themselves in the exact same situation in a month or so. They have changed the external environment, but that is not where the change needs to happen.
The only way to manage this well is to do the internal work so that your perception of the external experience becomes vastly different. I often use a 10-point stress scale when working with clients where I have them imagine a score of one is you’re relaxing on a beach in the Caribbean and a ten is living in a constant stress and overwhelm. Where are you? Most people who attend our leadership workshops are usually at a low 8, but 8-10 is the average. Others even emphatically report they consistently operate at an 11!
But after just a month of honing their self-awareness, their mindfulness and using very pragmatic skill sets to build their mental fitness and resilience, those same people will report a 4 to 5 on the stress scale. Nothing in their external environment has changed; their workload is the same, their supervisor is the same. But they’re not the same – they’ve changed. That is an important shift that every good leader needs to make for their professional success and their personal well-being.
Support for People Leaders
Fortunately, companies have been investing more in management training programs – both internally and externally – to support leadership and management growth. They continue to invest and re-invest in this area as they experience a substantial return on investment in executive coaching. They give their people the tools to manage being thrown into new scenarios, so that they can adapt and succeed with a growth mindset. More and more, companies are supporting their managers to be successful while they are drinking from the fire hydrant and learning on the job.
Today’s people leaders ask bigger and better questions as they are driving results, they lead with accountability and ownership and articulate that expectation of others. Instead of trying to oversee everyone, they work to build that kind of leadership, and have it cascade down a level or two which increases that coaching ROI even further.
By focusing on developing people leaders, organizations can navigate the demands of a fast-paced corporate landscape while creating workplaces that inspire and motivate. The future of leadership is human – and the time to embrace it is now. Start your journey to becoming a people leader with the help of an executive coach.