Valuing Others and Being Available

For most of the last fifteen years I worked in manufacturing, I had interaction with each group of new team members on their first day of orientation. When I moved into a full time human resources role, I was responsible for covering the key points in the company policy manual, detailing the attendance policy, and walking my new coworkers through the steps in our progressive disciplinary process - just in case they chose to push the boundaries defined in that painfully boring handbook. While there was little emphasis placed on organizational values, largely because I had never had anyone cover whatever the company listed as values in specificity during all the time I worked there leading up to that point, I stressed the importance of mutual respect. I explained what their supervisors and managers would expect from them as well as the respectful treatment they should expect from those same supervisors and managers. While titles indeed varied across the organizational hierarchy, every role was important and that should be evident in the respect shown to each individual daily.

Then, and still today, I meant that with every fiber of my being. But you know as well as I do that not everyone lived up to that every day. I’ll stress once more here: there’s no such thing as a self-made leader; not even those folks who believe they hung the moon all by themselves. I’m sure you’re picturing a few of them, and I am too. Relationships are absolutely crucial for each of us to unlock our true leadership potential. To earn influence that supersedes any title we could ever hold, to come to terms with our own true worth, to build qualifications that go beyond any certification we achieve, or to authentically practice the art of responsiveness, valuing others and being available is a must.

Consider the people you’ve worked around, especially the ones with prestigious positions, who did nothing to cover the fact that they saw most everyone working around them as their underlings. The ones I’ve worked around were quick to let anyone and everyone know they were in charge. If you weren’t sure just how important they were, all you had to do was ask them. Their poor planning automatically became everyone else’s emergency.

Now think of the leaders you’ve interacted with who held tremendous responsibility and juggled crazy schedules but never wavered in showing just how much they appreciated the teams around them and found time for anyone who requested it. I’ve referenced several of the examples I’ve had in my life leading up to this point - Terry, Kevin, Rod, Chris - but there have been so many more. If you happened to report to any of them, they were the ones who introduced you to their families by saying “I work with Wes.” Through the dozen years that Kevin was my supervisor, I never heard him tell anyone I was his employee. I can think of dozens of times where Terry corrected members of his team who said they worked for him by emphasizing they worked with him.

While this may seem like simple semantics, the feelings backing our vocabulary in either case tell a powerful story. Valuing others and being available unlocks leadership potential and strengthens teams. We won’t stand much chance of leaving a responsive legacy - or any type of positive legacy for that matter - unless we genuinely value others. Quite honestly, valuing others and being available should be a written prerequisite for holding any type of leadership responsibility (let alone a title that carries any kind of authority). Valuing others requires seeing their worth. Before we look at that in detail, think about how you can inspire those around you to start out by just fostering a culture of respect and growth.