An excerpt from Transfluence: How to Lead with Transformative Influence in Today’s Climates of Change
Wilt Chamberlain was one of the greatest basketball players of all time. When he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 1960s, he was asked if he thought his new coach could “handle” him.
“No one handles me,” Chamberlain reportedly said. “I’m a person, not a thing. You handle things. You work with people.”
Intellectually, I think most leaders know people aren’t tools to control. They aren’t a “thing” to be handled or a “chair” that merely fulfills a function. But it’s easy to grow detached and distant from the very people who matter most in our organizations. It’s easy for leaders, even those of not-for-profits, to become “caretakers” of their organizations rather than “caregivers” for their organizations. It’s easy for them to get fixated on net worth rather than human worth.
We were under a tremendous amount of pressure as a leadership team when we were trying to turn things around at Prologis, and much of our focus was on our financials. We were working dog years, and the tension among us was building. I could see that if the torrid pace continued, we’d soon all be dead. An intervention was clearly needed. So, I decided to hire a coach to work with the entire senior management team, one-on-one and as a group. And in one of our first meetings, he told me something that has stuck with me ever since.
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“The best-led teams always understand and actually behave as though human capital is their most valuable asset,” he said. “Is your team doing that?” Actually, I didn’t know. I had heard leaders say that. Many even put it in their value statements. But how many just pay lip service to it? How many really mean it? What does it mean to place human capital first? And how does it look to actually place human worth before net worth?
That’s when I realized our senior management had fallen into a common leadership trap—we led with a “caretaker” mentality. We did what I think most leadership teams do: We took care of the company. We focused on areas for growth. We paid attention to new acquisitions. Our performance assessments always started with our financial results. We talked about our customers and how we could improve our share of their wallet. And we made sure we communicated to our investors.
All of those things are important, but I realized we rarely talked about our people outside the context of their performance and compensation. We didn’t talk about ways to enhance their experience. We rarely even talked about what was important to them. We took good care of the company, but we gave less care to its people.
We needed to make a shift from that “caretaker” mentality to a “caregiver” mentality—a servant approach toward our people. We needed to lead more with a heart.
I’m on the board of directors of Iron Mountain and Host Hotels, companies that have taken a caregiver approach toward human capital. Their leaders have a fundamental belief that their workforce strategy is a competitive weapon. They devote time in every board meeting to showcasing their people and they place enormous importance on continuous personnel development deep into their organizations. It’s an excruciating process, but one that demonstrates their heart for their people. And their track records of employee retention prove their strategy is working.
This is the type of leadership that the modern workforce craves and responds to, because it focuses on human interactions and relationships. It lives and breathes empathy. It speaks to people where they are in life and knows what matters to them. And it demonstrates respect for the unique qualities of diverse employees and other congregations. Transfluent leaders want their people to be better individuals inside and outside of the work environment— with their families, friends, and in their communities. And they engender trust because subordinates know their leaders have their backs.
Lead with Transformative Influence
Transfluence shows leaders how they can have transformative influence by overcoming their fears and pride, building transparency into their leadership, developing a strong core of authentic values, and passionately pursuing a meaningful purpose.
Available Now.
