'Turning the Human On' Could Tackle Staff Disengagement

Three years ago, a Gartner study suggested that 90% of leaders acknowledged the importance of developing their human leadership skills, making them more relatable, empathetic and authentic. Around the same time, a separate study showed that fewer than 30% of workers felt their leader could be described as a human leader.

The need to develop more human leaders has grown even more acute in the intervening years, claims Alex Bailey, CEO and co-founder of leadership development specialists, Bailey & French, learning providers on the Government Skills framework. “If leaders can’t get better at this, I think we risk seeing employees becoming increasingly disengaged from their employers,” she explains. “It’s already happening. They’re no longer forming connections and getting their human fix at work. As they look for that elsewhere, perhaps outside of work or in their side gigs, work becomes less important. That disengagement reduces the extra, discretionary effort they’d otherwise put in. Unfortunately, that discretionary effort is often what makes things happen in an organisation and drives innovation.”

“I think it’s hard for leaders to be genuine and authentic, treading a politically fine line in today’s highly polarised society,” she says. “That polarisation of views can make it difficult to rally people around corporate purpose or values, which is why I think some organisational cultures are starting to weaken.”

“It’s also hard for them to be role models across multi-generational workforces that can hold wildly different ideas of what they expect from their leaders. Because of this, I’ve had leaders tell me they feel like they’re talking into a vacuum at times or feel like a fraud because they can’t connect with all the members of their team. On top of that, virtual working and changing shift patterns have made it even harder to form meaningful human connections. As a result, it’s tough for leaders right now; the toughest it’s ever been.”

Leading through change

Much of what Alex talks about with regard to human leadership focuses on leading through periods of change; times when the importance of maintaining human connections becomes ever more apparent.

“We used to experience change perhaps a couple of times a year, didn’t we?” she continues. “And these could be staggered, so we’d do the digital transformation after the reorganisation because we didn’t want to put too much on people at once. But now, we’ve got the digital transformation on top of a restructure, on top of a merger, on top of a policy change. There’s no scope for staggering or phasing them, so leaders being able to help anchor people in what’s important, when they’re going through multiple changes and they feel like they’re operating in chaos, that’s more important than ever.”

“Unfortunately, I think the way change is often presented in organisations can make it hard to bring positive human emotions – excitement, hope, joy – to the surface. There are often too many negative connotations around having to cope with change, rather than being able to see the opportunities for growth that change can present us with.”

According to a recent Bailey & French paper, humanising the change process can help navigate uncertainty as well as creating workplaces where innovation, collaboration, connection and trust can flourish. That requires leaders who can navigate the operational and transactional impacts that change can bring while also being alert to the profound emotional effect it can have on people.

Greater public scrutiny

The demands of human leadership present a challenge that Alex believes may be even greater in the public sector due to its higher profile and visibility. “I think there’s more scrutiny on every decision that public sector leaders make,” she says. “They don’t get the benefit of the doubt on anything, so every single thing has to be done absolutely perfectly. That makes it hard to innovate, hard to make mistakes. It makes it hard to feel like it’s ok to be human.”

“What makes this all the more concerning is the rise of AI and technology. We know the impact they’re having, so if we don’t pay really close attention to being human on purpose alongside that technology, then our human connections are going to become even less of a part of our working world than they are now. And once that’s gone, what are we left with?”

“Earlier in my career, when we spent far more time with people in a physical workplace, colleagues could easily become great friends. They experienced things alongside us at our desks that were part of our lives – and they became really connected to us. To not have that any more, to potentially go through a day feeling alone because each person you speak to is different and has no idea what you’ve been through; that’s all part of a steady, slow, silent disconnection that wears people down, causing the loneliness and disassociation that we now see more of in society.”

“We need to remember that we have this universal human connection that can transcend all the different barriers that can separate us. Now more than ever, with everything going on around us, I think it’s important that leaders do what they can to establish – or re-establish – that golden thread of human connection within the workplace.”

Learn more about human leadership in the introductory course Modern Leadership.