Do You Have Your Employees' Backs?

“I have the backs of my employees."

Who among us wouldn't say that we do?

And what does that mean exactly?

I recently spoke with two industry colleagues (we'll call them Mike and Susan), with strikingly similar scenarios but vastly different outcomes.

Both were:

• Long-time, top performers at their respective companies.

• Going through a significant family crisis at home involving one of their children.

• Self-aware enough to know that it was affecting their work, initiating conversations with their respective managers along with requests for understanding and flexibility if needed.

The responses:

• Mike's manager (appearing annoyed and in a deadpan, cold tone): "Well I'm sorry to hear that - you should avail yourself of any paid time off if you need it."

• Susan's manager (leaning across her desk and expressing genuine concern): "Oh my God that's awful - what do you need, how can I help?"

As you might expect, Manager A left Mike feeling betrayed while Susan's manager sent a powerful message that said, "we care about you and will do whatever we can to help you get through this."

Any guess which employee doesn’t work for the same manager and which one does?

The often underestimated but critical skills of self-awareness, self-expression, empathy, and interpersonal relationships -- all demonstrated by Susan’s manager -- are just some of the tenets of strong emotional intelligence (EQ), which has been proven to be a predictor of leadership and performance success.

We can't fix (nor is it our responsibility to fix) the problems and challenges that our employees may be encountering outside of work, but when life inevitably knocks one of our employees down, true leaders step up with caring, compassion and a helping hand to say "here, let me/us help you up."

Strong leaders demonstrate EQ and what it means to truly have the backs of their teams.

Having the backs of our employees isn't just the right thing to do - it's also good for business. A caring and compassionate culture has a positive impact on engagement, retention, productivity and profitability.

Cultures aren’t defined by core value plaques on conference room walls, statements in employee handbooks or inscriptions on website career pages - they’re defined by the day-to-day, real-life, ground level moments with people in which we show, not tell, our employees and others what’s important and what’s not.

In the work that I do as an HR Advisor and Emotional Intelligence trainer/coach, those clients with the strongest cultures live their core values and, not surprisingly, also have lower turnover, higher engagement, sustained growth and profitability. Strong EQ skills are a common thread amongst their leadership teams.

How we respond when life throws our employees a curveball can define who we are as leaders - and what kind of organizations we want to be leading.

So…do you have your employees’ backs?