Is balancing people’s needs with business demands one of the defining challenges of modern leadership?
Although we know that these factors are intrinsically linked – happy and engaged people lead to better business – that doesn’t make it any easier to balance the two.
It can often feel that real high performance comes at the expense of individual well-being, or that if we focus too much on employee happiness and engagement, people won’t be fully productive.
Regardless, it’s evident that leaning too far towards either business or people is never going to bring optimal results, nor be sustainable.
When priorities tip too far
The most natural tendency is to over-index on achieving results above all else. Our workplaces value and reward productivity, and it takes real discipline to ensure this doesn’t become disproportionate.
But when we focus on business outcomes at all costs, and for extended periods of time, anything perceived as “people-focused” (i.e. culture) takes a backseat. We get unhealthy competition in our teams, stress and burnout, and high attrition.
Maybe it’s the fear of what we consider the alternative that keeps us there – that prioritising people’s happiness regardless of the impact on business leads to a lack of accountability and mediocre results.
When a leader focuses on the comfort of their team over what the business needs, their team will drain more resources than the value they create. So no one wants to be here either.
The calibrating act
To successfully build a high-performing and happy team, leaders need to be both performance-driven and people-centred.
So how do we approach it?
Think about it as if you’re standing on a wobble board. You’re never going to be completely stable all the time, but you need great core strength to try not to tilt over in either direction and aim to rebalance when it does.
When leading, rather than trying to find and maintain the perfect balance, it’s more like continuously calibrating. It requires nuance, adaptability and a dynamic approach to team culture that you regularly revisit and refine.
There may even be periods where there’s a temporary need to prioritise business over people or vice versa, but with a clear sense that it is not forever, and knowing you’ll need to shift that emphasis in the future.
This might require taking action that feels like it’s pulling in the opposite direction:
- Slowing down to focus on culture when there is a bias towards urgency
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Addressing dysfunctional behaviours, even though team members are exceeding their targets
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Disrupting the status quo by introducing a new idea or change when your team feels a sense of stability
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Holding people to account, challenging them and having difficult conversations when results are slipping.
I’ve met only a few leaders who are naturally skilled at this and can deftly navigate these tensions. For the rest of us, we skew towards one or the other and need to develop this capability.
A practical framework
One reason I developed the five-pillar framework was to provide a practical way to manage this challenge.
Each pillar puts people at the centre in service of the business. A leader’s role is to facilitate collaborative (or workshop-like) conversations around these five pillars so that people and business stay connected.
Alignment – having visibility over the ‘why’ behind the work – the bigger picture – with a clear purpose, vision and goals, motivates and engages the team. Values and working principles are created and translated to behaviours so that they connect to what the team is trying to achieve.
Cohesion – everyone can see their individual contribution to the team’s higher-level goals, and each person’s expertise and input is valued and appreciated. This requires recognising the diverse skills sets and ways of working across the team as essential to business success.
Communication – ensuring everyone feels comfortable to speak up, feels heard and has access to the information they need to work effectively. This involves running meetings that are structured to create value together, keep business moving forward and are engaging and relevant spaces for team members.
Design – crafting unique ways of working – structures, systems and processes – based on the people in the team and what they need to achieve together, that are set up for them to perform at their best.
Change – a team staying accountable to their goals by regularly assessing whether their ways of working are helping or hindering progress. They stay tuned into what the business needs to ensure their habits match and enable them to continue their success.
When guided by these areas, paying attention to team culture is not seen as secondary – it’s embedded into the work. Team building is not a separate activity that happens “when there’s time”. It happens as a team works, to support the work.
When you design team culture for healthy people and a healthy business, it creates a virtuous cycle.
To effectively ensure business demands and people needs do not feel at odds with other, create culture goals alongside business goals. Ask your team: what culture needs to exist for us to achieve these goals? Then create values or working principles that reflect this collective performance, design the structures and systems that make these behaviours easier and hold each other accountable for living up to them.
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