This month I read Paul Sarvadi’s “Take Care of Your People.” This book focused on many HR centered topics, including leadership and culture. It was interesting to read about these topics from someone who spent 30 years working on different aspects of HR and has been able to help many companies better connect with, manage and support their people as a result.
One of the connections this book made was the relationship between creating a culture, having a healthy culture, and employees being confident in knowing what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. In business circles we often talk about the importance of culture, but usually it gets tied in with things like smoothie bars or lots of vacation time. But it makes a lot of sense that if your business has a healthy culture, not only will people feel comfortable working at the business, they’ll understand it better too, which makes for happier and more effective employees.
Another of the important insights shared in the book has to do with training. I’m a big supporter of giving employees the tools and resources they need, but especially the education they need to do their job well. But the question the book raises is whether or not the issue is really one that can be resolved through education, or if there’s a different issue at the heart of the problem like expectations that don’t line up, they don’t agree with the direction the company is going, there aren’t sufficient resources provided, or there’s a performance issue. None of those issues can be resolved through more education, in fact, at that point the education is a waste of resources. So should we invest more in education for employees? Yes, but not when we’re trying to use it as a replacement for doing the hard work, asking the hard questions or asking the right questions.
Finally, one of the most important things the book talked about is how business is really a cyclical relationship. Yes, the leaders must lead and must be present for their employees, but also the employees have to be willing to give and communicate as well for the relationship (and company) to be healthy and successful. And it must be a regular thing, that the leaders and employees are connecting with each other so that everyone is on the same page and everyone has a chance (even anonymously) to give feedback and work on challenges, issues, questions and sticking points not when things are burning down, but before they become an issue.
How have your leaders and employees grown, developed and worked together over these last two years of change? What have you found to be the most important or effective things and what have you changed as a result?