Your People Need You to See Them

Early in my marriage, when I was a braver man, I asked my wife why she chose me. She thought for a long moment. Long enough for me to wonder if she questioned her decision.

Then she said something I have thought about ever since.

“You saw me when I was invisible.”

That is the trunk of a root-to-fruit Work Positive Culture. Seeing and being seen.

The Hidden Cost of Being Invisible

Built In’s 2024 Culture Report found that 61% of employees would leave their current job for a company with a better culture. Forty-three percent would leave for a 10% salary bump if they feel undervalued or disconnected.

The cost of not seeing your people is beyond a moral concern. It is financial too.

When people feel invisible, replaceable, like cogs in a machine, they shut down. It is more than disengagement. It is a soul-wound that affects everything they do.

Your leader soul, grown strong from its root system, pushes up through the soil of your work culture. As a trunk, it carries nutrients from the roots to support everything else. And your first job as a trunk is to see the people around you.

Three Moves That Make People Feel Seen

Don Barden has spent his career building what he calls inclusive leadership, at its core the act of making every person feel seen, heard, and understood. He describes the trunk function of leader soul in three moves.

Sympathy for the problem.

When a team member brings you an issue, resist the urge to solve it. First, acknowledge the problem itself. Say “That sounds frustrating” or “I can see why that would be concerning.” You go soul-to-soul with the person before you ever touch the problem.

Empathy for the person.

Move from the problem to the person experiencing it. Ask “What’s at stake for you here?” then listen as in soul-to-soul rather than waiting for your turn to talk. You communicate: “You matter beyond your productivity.”

Empowerment for the solution.

Rather than fixing things for your team, ask “How would you solve this?” According to Don, 96% of the time the person bringing the problem already knows the solution. They just need to be seen and heard first. Roger Gerard, author of Lead with Purpose, calls this “go and see, go and do” leadership. Culture does not live on posters. It lives in the hearts and minds of your people.

Your Trunk Do One Thing Challenge

This week, write three handwritten notes to team members on physical note cards.

• Thank someone for a specific contribution they made.

• Acknowledge a personal quality you genuinely admire in them.

• Express gratitude simply for who they are.

The Work Positive Bottom Line

Your people do not need you to fix everything. They need you to see them. That act of seeing transforms your current culture into a root-to-fruit Work Positive Culture, one person at a time. Do One Thing today.

Taken from Dr. Joey’s newest book, Leader Soul: Grow a Root-to-Fruit Culture.

Keywords: #LeaderSoul #RootToFruit #WorkCulture #WorkPositive #CultureEatsStrategyForBreakfast #InclusiveLeadership #PeopleFirst