One way startup founders can display more human-centric leadership is by training managers to be better coaches. Human-centric leadership is at the core of coaching and is crucial to developing employees’ potential. A coach helps employees focus on growth, where a boss just focuses on reports. Training managers and practicing what you preach with coaching is critical to being a more human-centric leader.
At Polycarbin, the founders are incredibly personable. Their leadership drives our small team to achieve great things. There are many stories, but some more solid examples: - The founders budget time to join sales calls with new sales team members. Not only do the newest members get to see and get repetitions with the best pitch-givers in the company, they get to feel the support of the ownership guiding them towards there sales goals. - The founders give personal calls to their employees at least once a week. We all work long hours to improve things for our customers to make science more sustainable, but a call to check in and ask personal questions is incredibly refreshing.
Set up 1-on-1 meetings with your team members to check in on them. Human-centric leadership is all about valuing the people in your organization, so it's important to provide opportunities for them to express feedback. This is particularly important in startup environments, where grueling hours are often the norm. Having regular check-ins with your employees can help founders assess their staff needs and provide a healthier environment.
To show real, human leadership in the oft chaotic world of startups, founders must adopt a culture of radical transparency in which members of the team are unafraid to share their views with you. By asking team members for feedback on different aspects of the business, you can get a proper sense of how the company is running on the ground, and begin to introduce improvements. But remember - as the founder - the buck ultimately stops with you. It's up to you to prioritise changes and justify these decisions with your team. Be transparent, be curious, but be decisive.
One of the best ways I've seen young companies band together is when their founders create a way to address big moments organically and remain in touch with the company's staff. As a founder, it's easy to focus on the daunting challenges quietly. This leaves employees to wonder what's going on and feel detached from the exciting successes and failures of the company as a whole. The best startup I have worked for displayed human-centric leadership by hosting a weekly kickoff and wrap up meeting every Monday and Friday. Oftentimes, they also used that time to bring on a co-host from a various department and chat about the amazing work they were doing. It made everyone in the company, even in usually-siloed jobs (legal, accounting, etc.) feel a part of the bigger picture. It also allowed the founder to discuss company-wide wins, challenges and changes in an organic manner. There's nothing worse than only hearing from your company's founder when something big happens.
As a leader, we've all probably hire someone for a particular role, only to find out down the road, that they'd be a much better fit for another department. This type of active engagement with your team is what will build a positive, happy company culture. As a team member learns and grows, they shouldn't feel confined by their title. Instead, keep an eye out for when an employee learns new skill sets, or when you see them excel during a cross-collaboration with other divisions of the company. You'll see a dramatic change in employee retention.
Set clear objectives and lead by example. I believe in collaborating with the entire team, so they know I am in it with them and encourage their feedback. By setting clear objectives on projects and encouraging them to think outside the box, it inspires to create the best work and know they are part of creating something truly special. Connecting with your team and showing them what you know they are capable of will produce great results.
As a seasoned leader, I believe that employee trust helps firms in becoming more human-centered. Transparent and honest communication, as well as regular feedback from leaders, help to build this trust. In order to maintain regular video meetings with your team while working from a distance, digital technology solutions are essential. Interaction with coworkers is necessary for both the motivation and the energy it provides. To avoid social isolation, leaders should pay attention to the various personality types in their workforce and provide them with planned alternatives to the coffee machine discussion. The simplest approaches to demonstrate human-centered leadership are to see and hear everyone and cultivate a sense of belonging among them.
One mistake leaders make, regardless of startup or large enterprise, is to not admit that they don\'t know something or that they need help with something. Or worse, not admit when they may be worried. It\'s easy to believe that being Superman is the way to go. The truth is that sometimes Clark Kent does a better job. Admitting you\'re human with all the baggage that comes with it makes you more believable and relatable as a leader. This isn\'t promoting false humility so much as championing transparency.
As a women-led organization, we are extremely focused on creating a culture where diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is not only written into the rule books, but it is understood as one of the critical keys to our success as an organization. We are a fledgling company, so we are currently in the process of defining our DEI guidelines. However, our founders have had the opportunity to “walk the walk” in selecting diverse vendors and partners, as well as diverse models in our lifestyle photography and media thus far.
I've been working with interns this summer and one thing I've learned is to ask questions and find out what their goals and needs are. Everyone is unique, and what one person is interested, another person may not be. I was just about to assign the interns tasks with the top tasks that I wanted done, but when I started asking them what they were interested in, (instead of just assuming), I learned that they were all interested in different tasks. I think when someone is interested in a certain task, they're more likely to perform better. You can't always pick and choose what to work on, but as a startup founder there's so many priorities, you can delegate tasks according to someone interests. By focusing on their interests and needs, you might also see that some people work or learn differently than others. So when you stop focusing on the task and more on the person and show empathy and compassion, that will make you a better leader with happier employees.
Think about how you can balance the needs of your business, employees, consumers, and stakeholders during any phase of the organization’s existence. Along with fostering an organization that is driven by a mission and values, communicate directly with your employees to determine how they handle times of crisis and develop strategies to reduce employee concerns. Having a better understanding of the needs of your entire organization allows for greater self-awareness and inner resilience for managing any success or challenge that presents itself.
Diversity should be encouraged and understood. A leader should always remember that no group of employees or customers is homogeneous. Every person in a team experiences the world, makes decisions, learns, and is influenced in different ways. Taking on different opportunities and challenges from different perspectives, and developing an environment that accepts and listens to different perspectives, will learn to develop human-centered solutions.
All humans are welcome in a human-centric workplace. This entails developing an inclusive culture that values all employees' thoughts, ideas, and cultures. It denotes a welcoming coexistence environment. A company wins the talent war by creating a work environment in which employees can be themselves. The most successful organizations create an environment in which employees feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work.
A people centric leader invests in the growth and well-being of its people through development programs that contribute to employee success. As a startup anyone joining and believing in your business should be made an associate. As a leader it is your job to nurture and connect the individual’s overall success with that of the company. Make it your objective and a source of pride to see people join as entry level associates and advance into their careers. Everyone must feel that they are valued and with the right amount of hard work and dedication they can become top executives, and even take over as the leader of the company.
As a start-up founder, you want to ensure that you show human qualities to your employees, and there is no better way than checking in on them. Employees usually feel appreciated when their well-being is looked into. There are many ways you can check in on your employees. It would be better to ensure that they are doing well both mentally and physically. By checking in on them, you ensure that you also form a good culture for your company to help with employee retention.
In the race to launch, scale, and grow it can be easy to overlook or even neglect your team. Don't let this happen to you. Human-centric leadership is about prioritizing your people. Start by creating a culture that goes beyond standard check-ins. Ask yourself, what does my team need to thrive as professionals AND people? Team building activities, honest and open communication, listening and being responsive to concerns, and showing vulnerability can all go a long way.
Learning how to show that you value your remote employees is an important skill. Over-communication is essential to get through to remote employees, especially since they cannot interact with and listen to their managers and co-workers in person throughout the day. Remote leaders should explain things more than once so that their remote employees will definitely remember them. This will help their remote employees feel engaged despite not being in an office setting.
One of the easiest ways to start with human-centric leadership is to have an open-door policy. Employees don't like having to work up through the corporate system on some key issues and would like the ability to bring it directly to the founders' attention. Naturally, it can't be this way for everything or the founders wouldn't have any time. However, it can be allowed for certain things like employee safety, product safety, and critical policy violations. That is especially true if employees want to bring attention to something a manager is doing that violates policy or raises alarms about safety.
Startup founders should focus on expressing appreciation to their team members. This human-centric leadership approach is powerful, because expressing gratitude for their day-to-day work means they are being seen for their efforts. This creates highly engaged team members and sets a powerful foundation for your growth. A simple thank you, especially from a founder, goes a long way in a startup!