Leaders shouldn't act as therapists or babysitters. Instead, they should be guides who listen with empathy, give credit for wins, and spend real time with staff to show they're valued. When people feel safe to be vulnerable at work, they own both their mistakes and their success.
Chapters
I come home and I tell them, like, people think when they're running organizations that they have to babysit staff. That word burns me because if you're a boss or a leader or a manager who thinks in that way, that that is your job, or that you are their psychologist or that you're their therapist— no, you're not. What you are is there, you're supposed to guide, encourage, support, be a friend, someone to listen to. Understand that if you want good output at work, the best strategy is a great culture, is one where people can come to work and own their mistakes, own their wins, get credit for their wins, where they can be fully transparent. But if there is something that is weighing them down in their work life that you understand as a human, they don't just have an off switch because you don't have an off switch either. That if they're having a bad day in life— we have these days here too sometimes, don't we? That if they're having a bad day in life as a human, showing up as a father, as a mother, as a son, as a friend, and something's wrong at home, That's going to trickle down, that's going to filter through. You can't get away from seeing that in the workplace. Your job isn't to then become a therapist, isn't then to say that you're babysitting them. It's to sit with them in the mud very many times like I've done with my people and say, hey, I'm here for you, for you. We exist because of you. We couldn't do this without you and we want you here. What can I do as a friend, as a leader, somebody that you can confide in? What can I hear from you? I've got 5, 10, 15 minutes that I can find for you, and even if I don't have it, I'm going to clear that in my diary.
