Individualized Leadership

One of the things we have to recognize is, I think often times we forget each other’s humanity, and starting with our humanity, and understanding that we are people. And especially in this moment, with everything going on. It’s been a tough couple of years, right? And everyone has faced their own challenges and is navigating that in their own way. But how do we just pause and really get to know that person and check in with them and say, hey, what do you need? And one of the things we have to understand is that leadership is individualized. One person on the team may say, hey, in order to say I appreciate the work that you’re doing, write me a note or a post-it. For someone else, it may be a public acknowledgment in a meeting or something.
But are we taking the time to really get to know our people, and what resonates with them, so they feel empowered, they feel included, they feel motivated to do their best work? That’s something that I think is a missed opportunity for a lot of leaders. Or just even pausing and saying, “Hey, look, let’s get to the work agenda in a second.” But just checking in and saying, “How are you doing? What do you need? How can I be of service to you?” Because I believe in servant leadership.

That is a great model. Many of the leaders that we’ve interviewed believe in that, too. This is related as well, how do you effectively engage with people who have different modes of operating?

I think it’s asking those questions upfront. Some of the questions that we ask… we are actually hiring at Just Work right now. And in the interview, we always ask, what do you need from a leader, from the organization that sets you up for success and allows you to do your best work? And then what’s something that you’ve experienced that an organization has done, or a leader has done that has hindered your performance? And a candidate said, “No one’s ever asked me that before.” And I think that’s incredibly important. And that’s not to say that there’s a right answer to that. But I want to make sure that I’m able to deliver and create the environment where you can do your best work that you just communicated. So, again, you know that we’re optimizing for our talent, we’re optimizing for everyone at Just Work.