ESSENTIALS FOR LEADERS AND THOSE THEY LEAD

Horrible Bosses. The Devil Wears Prada. Tyrannical managers are often the subject of office comedies. But behind the satire lies a darker reality. Despite some improvements in workplace practices, many leaders may still set unreasonable expectations, display favoritism, steal credit, use inappropriate language, or discriminate against employees who exhibit specific characteristics. Leaders who indulge in or condone toxic behavior can erode employee performance and morale, harm customer relationships, and expose the organization to litigation. Here are some ways to ensure that your workplace remains civilized and respectful.

AN IDEA

Look to improve others—and yourself

“Fundamentally, leaders need to make other people better,” says business psychology professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in a conversation with McKinsey senior partner Brooke Weddle and partner Bryan Hancock. “There should be less focus on individualistic, selfish, egotistical, and career-enhancing traits and dispositions and more focus on those that make other people better.” Unfortunately, some leaders may be “overconfident, narcissistic, and incompetent” because traditional corporate culture is likely to favor these traits, says Chamorro-Premuzic. To counter this tendency, bosses could consider honing their intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. “If you’re managing people, it’s important that you also manage yourself,” he says. “It’s important that you evoke and display the right emotions. It’s important that you can empathize with others and connect with them on a human level.”

A BIG NUMBER

4

That’s the number of factors that organizations may need to consider to change the behavior of managers—and increase employee satisfaction at work. For example, research shows that as people gain power, they tend to lose their ability to understand people and situations accurately, leading to a deficit in empathy. Leadership training courses that emphasize soft skills, as well as programs to encourage mindfulness and self-awareness, may counter this to some extent. Formal mechanisms that reinforce desirable behaviors could also help: for instance, employee satisfaction with an immediate boss could become part of that leader’s performance evaluation.

A QUOTE

“I worked with a boss who was extremely controlling and denigrating, and I saw how my performance shrunk because I was so busy defending myself.”

That’s former marketing executive Dalia Feldheim in a discussion with McKinsey on how so-called feminine leadership qualities such as empathy and intuition may help combat toxic work environments and the resulting employee burnout. In a business world that often emphasizes competition and power over people, what may be called for is “emotional bravery,” which, Feldheim says, “goes way beyond emotional intelligence—it allows emotions and empathy to come out. The role of the leader is to elicit empathy.”

A SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW

During his 11-year tenure as CEO of Merck, Ken Frazier gained widespread respect for spurring organizational performance without compromising his strong personal values. “I thought it was important to be humble,” the former executive chairman says in a conversation with McKinsey senior partner Vik Malhotra and senior partner alumnus Steve Van Kuiken. “My dad was a janitor, and he was ten feet tall in my eyes. I also knew that when I was in that [CEO] chair, my job was to serve my employees and patients; it was not about me.” Rather than exerting his power, Frazier adopted an equitable approach to leadership that involved nurturing and promoting top talent, delegating key decisions, and exhorting teams to work toward the common good. “When a company is successful, the CEO gets a lot of credit for what I call the big moments, but leadership is in the many small, quiet moments with the team,” he says. “You have to assemble the right talent and figure out how to work together, making sure the company has the right intensity, operational cadence, and accountability.”

— Edited by Rama Ramaswami, senior editor, New York

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