My client, Megan, was facing a major customer challenge at her company. She and her department heads held a meeting to strategize how to address it. Once they had finished outlining an ambitious plan, her colleague exhaled, “We need to be careful about how we communicate this to our teams. We’re asking them to do a lot of extra work. Everyone is going to be unhappy about that.” The company’s engagement scores had taken a hit earlier that year, and her colleague feared this change would only make things worse.
Though Megan kept her cool during the meeting, she vented to me shortly after. “I’m trying to help weather a crisis here,” she said, “and he wants me to worry about people being happy?”
Megan’s question brings up a dilemma that is common for most executives. Senior employees often have the power to make decisions that will significantly impact the collective work experience of the people below them, but at the same time, they are removed from those people. This is largely because, as employees rise within their organization, their responsibilities shift from considering how their team feels to shaping organizational ethos. Doing what is right for their company and doing what will make their employees happiest are not always mutually exclusive.
This paradox can make seemingly obvious choices difficult to make. People at the top often get exaggerated, anecdotal opinions about how people at the bottom are feeling about any given issue. “Everyone is going to be unhappy,” for example, is likely not true. Further complicating the issue — employee engagement surveys aggregate feedback into large clusters, making it challenging for executives to weigh accurate data into their decisions.
Many senior leaders, as a consequence, have a fear of being viewed as cold or uncaring. When this fear takes over, they can become over-sensitive and start to personalize the unhappiness of others. To move past this fear and become better leaders, people in positions of power need to find a balance between making decisions that serve the greater good of their organizations while still remaining appropriately concerned about the emotional wellbeing of those below them. In my experience consulting with executives on how to find this balance, I’ve found that making the following shifts in mindset are particularly important.
