Szilárd Kacsó

I was at a coaching session with a senior manager of a services company. We were discussing the challenges that she was facing with some specific team leaders. At one point, when discussing solutions and action steps, she asked me “Should I just be myself or try this instead?” She was thinking of having a different approach which would not have been her natural response. The question struck me because, on the one hand, I believe in authentic leadership. I believe that leaders should naturally be interested in performance through people. They should naturally be assertive and offer constructive feedback and appreciation, and naturally communicate the purpose or the mission. Leaders should be natural and authentic at all times because their role is not linked to a schedule (ex: from 9 am to 5 pm). It is a 24/7 role where people are watching your behaviors and words, and are translating them into things to consider (follow) or to criticize.

Being a Team Leader (at any level / function / department / industry) can be a challenging role. You constantly have to balance performance and requirements from management above, deal with employees, plan, manage, motivate, track, appraise performance, train, develop, sometimes hire or even deal with clients. It is certainly a complex role, and it can sometimes be difficult and exhausting. But it shouldn’t be! Let us see what we can do to make it easier and more effective, especially focusing on leading millennials (born between 1980 and 2000, give or take).

When it comes to our health and well-being, we call in a specialist. And we usually want the best one around, whose advice and treatment we’re careful to follow. We don’t trust what we read over the internet, or tell the doctor how to operate, right? In the end, it comes down to protecting our health. But do we do the same when our company is concerned? 

We are more and more preoccupied with happiness. And from an organizational point of view, we have become more aware of the importance of having happy employees: these are more productive, more satisfied, and more attached to the organization. Along these lines, we are also seeing an increased effort to satisfy our employees. But how can we make the big leap from a smile to all out organizational happiness?