Leaders influence others. They inspire, they motivate, they ignite passions, and people love to follow great leaders. It’s often said that people don’t leave organisations, they leave people, which highlights exactly why it’s important to find great leaders and give them a platform to perform.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on leadership or management. I have, however, been fortunate enough to work for, alongside, and in partnership with some incredible leaders throughout my career. I’ve also had the pleasure of being able to manage and lead teams myself. I’ve taken so many lessons from every environment I’ve been in and want to share a few of those lessons and hope it might help…

Be Interested in People

If you do not understand the people in your team, how are you going to get the best out of them? What’s important to them both in work and away from work? Do you understand and appreciate what else they have going on in their lives? This doesn’t mean you have to play an active part in their lives. Far from it. But you should empathise with and value them. For example, I’ve worked with people who have children with additional needs and had staff in my teams who have commitments outside of work such as playing sport or volunteering who have needed an element of flexibility in their schedule. I’ve worked with people who gone through some of the highest highs and lowest lows. Great leaders will know these things and will not only be understanding and make changes if needed, but they’ll also care about them and put actions in place to support if needed. Simple questions on a Monday morning such as “how did you get on at the weekend?” or “how is X getting on at his/her new school?” will make an incredible difference how valued they feel at work.

Leaders don’t just take an interest though, they also enable and create opportunities for people to be themselves and enjoy their lives. I recently read a few stories about employers giving staff the morning off work to take their children to their first day at school. A fairly simple gesture but just imagine how each parent would have felt and how this would reflect on the leader(s) making these decisions. It's also important to recognise that not everyone will have children and will have milestones in their lives that mean the same to them as a first day at school. Great leaders will know these things and treat the individual situations with the same value.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you fail to show an interest or put barriers in place for people to enjoy their lives away from work, you might as well ask them to go and look for a new job.

Celebrate Success of the Team and Individuals

Every great leader I’ve worked with has shared and highlighted success and great performance. They’ve also acknowledged (where appropriate) achievements outside of the workplace, especially when people are far too humble and modest to share this themselves. They haven’t needed to throw a party, and they don’t necessarily need to share it publicly every time, but showing that you value effort, performance, results, milestones etc. will not be missed.

Some people in your team may need constant recognition and praise, others might need it once or twice a year, some may want a public display, and others might value a simple text or phone call. This is where understanding and recognising what each individual needs is important, and great leaders will adapt to them. For example, some staff might value a payrise or increased bonus, others might prefer an extra day holiday, others might want a staff night out. It’s important to not only be adaptable as an individual but also have adaptable policies and processes to meet the needs of your people.

I remember being on a leadership course once with someone who openly admitted that they always expected others to accept how they wanted things to be done, and quickly realised the negative impact this was having. Great leaders can also admit when they’re wrong…

No Ego!

Most leaders will be incredibly knowledgeable and experienced, and they’ll sometimes be the expert in the room…but it isn’t essential. The best leaders surround themselves with people who will help them develop and learn, people who bring a different way of thinking, and people who will not accept the adage of “I told you to do it, so do it”.

There is no need for an ego.

I’ve worked with leaders who when you’d ask for advice, the reply was always “what would you do?” or “what do you think?” At the time it used to frustrate the hell out of me and I’d always think “if I knew the answer, I wouldn’t have asked!” but after a few years of reflection, I can appreciate what they were doing – trying to coach and help me solve my own problems. Leaders with egos won’t have a problem with telling you exactly what they’d do and insist you do the same. That’s not the best solution. I remember on a separate occasion working with a manager who had clearly spotted an issue in a plan and just let it prevail and fail. It wasn’t a life changing situation so was naturally easier to ‘let go’, but they spotted something bigger than being able to make it clear they knew better. They wanted the team to experience failure, to be able to reflect on what happened, and to learn lessons to implement in the future. I imagine there was probably part of them that was also hopeful that they’d be proved wrong too.

Empower. Don't Control

The term micro-management makes me feel uncomfortable. Not the words, but the practice of it. I don’t believe it is something that should ever be needed if you have the right people in place across a business and it shows a lack of trust, a lack of faith in someone’s capabilities, and is a complete waste of everyone’s time.

The best leaders will empower their people and give them everything they need to perform in their roles, they will not try to control them. This includes the art of delegation. Giving people opportunities to try things that would not ordinarily fit into their job description and responsibilities can be incredibly rewarding. Have regular check-ins, put clear communication processes in place, give people the tools they need to complete anything needed, and everyone will benefit long-term. I think some leaders like to have power and avoid delegating tasks in case somebody does it better or it makes them look bad. It’s a mindset thing. Some leaders will even delegate the roles they don’t like to do, and this speaks volumes about the person. Finding a leader who will actively ‘give up’ something they enjoy doing to aid the development of someone else is pretty rare. By doing this they will stay involved, they’ll be interested in how you’re doing, and they’ll want to offer support and guidance (because they won’t want it to fail). It will empower the person being asked to lead and they’ll feel valued and trusted. If a leader only delegates things they don’t like doing, it’ll show. They won’t be interested or care how you get on, and that will make the person feel exactly the same.

Share Challenge and Responsibility

In a similar vein to the above point, leadership also manifests itself in people who will accept the ‘failures’ of their team (regardless of whether they were actively involved) and they will share challenges and responsibility. They won’t point the finger at individuals or groups of people when something goes wrong, and certainly won’t belittle others publicly or in front of the group. The sporting world is a great example of this. You’ll often see managers and teammates interviewed after mistakes leading to goals or defeats and listen to them deflect the blame on the whole team or themselves. Behind the scenes, it will be completely different!

Openness and Honesty

This means a lot to me both personally and professionally and I can’t recall a moment in my life or my professional career when a leader has lied or ignored the truth and it end well for them! I personally have the strongest values for integrity and the truth and I cannot respect people who actively avoid being open and honest. I would arguably go as far as saying I don’t like them. Everything is not always going to be positive and I value managers and leaders who have the decency to be honest about a difficult situation. The ability to give good news AND bad news is an incredible skill. If you do not conduct yourself with integrity as a leader, how can you expect others to do the same?

Share Their Own Passions

Everything I’ve written about so far is all about how leaders can and should adapt to others, should go out of their way to understand what others need, and arguably put others above themselves. But it’s important to share their own passions with their team, to encourage people to buy into what’s important to them, and create environments where these passions manifest itself across the company. Most organisations have charity partners or give staff volunteer days. Here at Love Care we have an initiative called Share The Love - tldr; we plant trees when we place people in jobs!

Being a great leader and finding great leaders has never been more important. In an age where recruitment is such a candidate-led environment, leaders and organisations are making the mistake of trying to interpret what staff want or need. On the flip side, I’ve also read a lot of stories over the past few weeks and months about leaders and organisations who have made changes to their standard policies, processes, and contracts, to allow more freedom in their packages and offers based on research and insight.

People don’t necessarily leave jobs or take jobs because they just want more money. They will be attracted by great leadership, strong values, opportunities to progress, and working in an environment where there is appreciation in their work. This has been a problem over the past two years with Covid and lockdowns– especially with key workers such as teachers and childcare workers. It will take great leadership and innovation to understand the problem and find a solution.

A lot of what we try to achieve at Love Care Recruitment is based on everything above. We want to be the leaders in our industry. We want to know the people we work with (both clients and candidates), we care about what they do and what they’re trying to achieve, we celebrate shared successes like Share The Love, and will continue to learn and develop.

Steve Brennan, Account Director.