This week’s tips are adapted from Marcus Buckingham’s new book, Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business (HBR Press). The book posits that love—the deep connection that makes people feel seen, valued, and inspired—isn’t just a soft feeling, but a measurable driver of performance and growth. Buckingham identifies five feelings leaders must foster in their employees to lead them with love: control, harmony, significance, warmth of others, and growth. Each day this week, we’ll be outlining one of these key feelings, and how to nurture it on your team.
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To lead with love, you can’t impose control on your employees; they need to feel empowered and in control of their own work. Here’s how to foster that sense of agency on your team.
Start by asking three questions. 1) Whom do we serve? Ambiguity disempowers. If your employees don’t know whom they’re serving, their efforts will become scattered and ineffective. 2) What metrics should we track? People feel in control when they can track their own progress with a few simple KPIs. 3) What tools do we need? Empowering your team starts with providing what they need to be productive.
Push decisions to the front line. Empower your employees by distributing authority. When possible, let people closest to the work make the decisions based on their knowledge and expertise. This builds ownership and confidence.
Be repetitive. Ensure your expectations, values, and instructions leave no room for confusion. This requires repetition. When employees are certain about who they’re serving and how to measure success, they’re empowered to do the work with a sense of control. |
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