It’s a question many employees may ask themselves from time to time.
In March the latest Gallup poll suggested a concerning drop off in engagement over the four years since the start of the Pandemic especially among young and middle-age workers. Older millennials actively engaged in their work has fallen from 39 to 32% with Gen Zs dropping from 40 to 35% and Gen Xs 35 to 31%.
Gallup assesses 12 factors including feelings of satisfaction, recognition, being cared for and supported, opportunities to develop, finding the work meaningful, and having a voice.
All these factors are linked to the quality of leadership people experience – the relationship they have with their manager (and colleagues) founded on trust (or not), an organisational purpose they believe in and doing something that matters to them rather than just delivering a pay check, and the opportunity to contribute to that purpose and keep growing.
It all sounds so simple until the day-to-day realities of the task list and the ‘urgents’ and ‘importants’ kick in. We can too easily end up prioritising the work rather than our people.
The thing is the people, our relationship with them, our support, guidance and care are the work – this is what is truly important. Everything we achieve is through and with the people we lead. So, getting to know them and understand their world and what matters to them, building vital connection and constantly tending that connection can’t wait and can’t be consigned to a task on our list.
Rather ‘people first’ needs to be our mind-set and explicit in our leadership practice. From this everything else will flow.