How Building More Effective Bosses Will Ease Workforce Strains

The strains affecting the U.S. workforce since 2020 have yet to relent, leaving employers still struggling with recruitment and retention success – and no easy fixes in sight. 

There’s a lack of engagement among employees. Gallup finds 30% are engaged and 17% are actively disengaged, an 11-year low. This disengagement is largely caused by poor relationships with managers, which drives up quit rates as employee satisfaction and productivity decline. 

It makes the case for organizations to take a hard look at their managers and how well they are performing their role in shaping the culture and steering the organization’s success. Ultimately, the most effective managers are key to attracting and keeping the best people, investing 2.6 times more in intangibles like workforce capabilities than less effective competitors.

What makes for an effective manager and leader? It’s a given that they have both soft and hard skills in abundance. Behaviors, though, are the differentiator, and these are harder to build – or change – than skills. And foundational behaviors, especially empathy, or authentically caring, are cornerstones for effective leadership.

Such leaders mix candor with caring to build trusting relationships with employees. Such bosses hold people accountable without recrimination. They are attuned to their aspired-to identities and the behaviors requiring adoption or adaption to get there. 

They are open to real coaching on tactics to overcome inhibitors to change. This is predicated on a deep assessment of—and response to—these key questions: “What is the highest potential I can reach as a leader?” and “What behaviors keep me from achieving it?”

It’s not just behaviors that must be shaped. It takes learning to temper them with courage, humility, and discipline. With such leaders, the organization will thrive with a culture and people, top to bottom, that are aligned and engaged.

About the author

Nicole Floyd, CPA, SPHR is executive vice president and employee benefits sales leader at global insurance brokerage Hub International. She has more than 25 years of experience in insurance, financial management, human resources, sales and international business.