What a pivotal time to be in staffing. Our labor market is nearing full employment. “Artificial intelligence” has become a mainstream term. And the jobs of tomorrow are taking shape before our eyes.
In such a transformative environment, staffing leaders must connect more dots than ever before — and faster. However, as we whirl into the future of work, modern-day executives should not lose sight of the philosophies that made them the leaders they are today. With that, here are my top three tried-and-true leadership practices:
10/10/10 rule. Suzy Welch’s 10/10/10 rule is my go-to for making tough decisions. How will I feel about this decision in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years? As a business leader and a working parent, I’ve used this ideology to navigate scenarios that would have otherwise kept me up at night. This method allows leaders to be decisive, thorough and ethical under pressure by assessing potential outcomes.
For example, when my son was a senior in high school and wrapping up his final season on the lacrosse team, he asked me to be at his final six home games, knowing I missed some games in the past due to my travel schedule. I was determined to be at every game, but one Thursday a major client had a critical incident. I thought about the 10/10/10 rule: In 10 minutes, my senior team and I should be on our way to the airport. In 10 months, the client will be back to business as usual. In 10 years, my son might not involve me in his rehearsal dinner because I didn’t choose him when it counted. At the end of the day, I chose to be the leader who trusted my team to handle the client — and they did so flawlessly — and one who showed her team that there are times when it’s OK to put your personal life first.
Emotional bank account. Work relationships require give and take. Dr. Stephen Covey brought this concept to life in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where he looks at the give and take as an emotional bank account of deposits and withdrawals. The deposits are the easy part. Those are simple things like thanking somebody for a great idea in front of their peers or having somebody’s back in a meeting. There is no limit to the number of nice things you can say or do that make deposits in your employees’ emotional bank accounts.
On the other hand, a big part of talent management is holding your people accountable. Sometimes we must have difficult conversations — withdrawals. It’s important that you make more deposits than withdrawals, or you will be quickly overdrawn and risk losing a valuable employee.
Cherry on top. In building up the emotional bank account, there’s no better way to make meaningful deposits than by putting the “cherry on top” of any gesture. In fact, I consider the cherry on top to be the most important ingredient in a leader’s secret sauce, or any individual’s for that matter. It means doing that special, thoughtful something when engaging with others. By leaving your mark, you increase your authenticity and let the receiver know their needs are important.
Putting the cherry on top doesn’t have to mean moving mountains to show you care. It can be the simplest of deliveries. One time, in between flights and meetings, I was desperate for a snack. I asked the front desk staff at my hotel for an apple, and the attendant did something that really surprised me. He brought out a serving platter with two apples and said, “We didn’t know if you preferred a red or green apple.” This blew me away because it showed considerable thoughtfulness.
As we continue to experience rapid innovation in the staffing industry, I believe there will always be a place for tried-and-true leadership methods — the very principles that first inspired our networks to believe in us. I will continue to champion these three methods. How will you lead?
