It seems different these days in the workplace. Tons of change and the war for talent are creating lots of pressure on leaders. One of the consequences is leadership burnout, and it’s growing at the very time we must be humanizing our relationships at work. To make matters worse, some of our colleagues lack the critical emotional and social skills required to build these new diverse and virtual relationships.
One of the biggest challenges is that many people have changed their psychological perspective about work as they reemerge from the pandemic. Many of us want a more human, personalized experience that respects us as whole people with diverse aspirations and lifestyles, and meets our needs for well-being, belonging, growth, flexibility and mastery.
So, how can we as leaders humanize the employee experience? Like everything else in life, it starts inside ourselves. If we want to strengthen our bonds with work colleagues, we have to make the workplace more caring. Being aware of yourself (knowing yourself, being yourself and loving yourself) combined with a good dose of empathy (putting yourself in other people’s shoes) will communicate to those around you that you care about them. If we all did that, we all would be healthier, and our organizations would have greater trust, more agility, and a true sense of belonging. And this is the heart of building strong individual, team, and organizational performance.