Caring: An Underrated Skill Critical for Lean Leaders

Caring is one of those terms placed in the “soft skills” category, which unfortunately many interpret as less important or impactful than “hard skills.” Nothing can be further from the truth! In fact, it is the soft skills (which should be renamed as “people skills” or “human skills”) that are the most critical contributors to hard, bottom-line results.

In this article, I’ll primarily focus on the relationship between an employee and their direct supervisor and build case for why a supervisor should care for those who report to him or her. We’ll also review a few ways that a supervisor demonstrates that they care.

Caring and the Employee/Supervisor Relationship

Let’s start by defining “caring” regarding the employee/supervisor relationship. In short, the caring supervisor shows genuine concern for the employee as a person, not simply as an element of the production process or one of the “headcount” or “human capital.” (These are other monikers that should become extinct!)

The caring supervisor’s interactions with the employee send a message that is much deeper than a basic employment contract between employee and boss.

Through their actions, caring supervisors make it clear that they:

• Care about what the employee has to say
• Care about the employee’s concerns
• Care about the employee’s goals and aspirations
• Care about the employee’s well-being

This humanistic leadership approach is not, in any way, to the detriment of the goals of the business. It is not a case of balancing two opposing forces: Your belief in how people should be treated versus being focused on company performance. No compromise is required; rather, the behavior of the caring supervisor builds trust that becomes a powerful catalyst for continuous improvement and company performance.

Let’s delve into how caring, and the resulting trust, affects the behavior of the employee in a lean transformation.

Caring and Employee Behavior

To understand how caring affects behavior when developing a lean culture of continuous improvement, consider the personal challenges throughout a lean transformation. All improvement is change, and change is difficult for most of us humans. We are creatures of habit, and so continuous improvement means constantly being pulled out of our comfort zone. We have a situation that affects us personally, so relying solely on the logic of lean is not enough.

Even if the employee feels that their supervisor is honest and competent—which are two other components of trust—if caring is missing from the relationship, any change will likely be viewed cautiously. There are several fears that may be at the root of this caution, such as the fear of the unknown, the fear of losing status, the fear of failure, the fear of humiliation and the fear of job security, even if employees are told that the change will actually increase job security.

There’s just not enough trust to believe those words. The employee mindset will often be…

“It just sounds too risky and I’m not quite sure that this will be good for me. I’ll just keep my head down and see how it goes. I hear what is being said, but I’m just not sure if I can believe it.”

Obviously, this attitude won’t create the level of employee engagement that defines a lean culture.

Now consider if the employee does feel that their supervisor cares about them and will be there to help through the challenges of change. Now their mindset is likely…

“This sounds risky, but if my supervisor thinks this is best for both me and the organization, I’ll give it a try. I’ll give my supervisor the benefit of the doubt since I trust her. I know that she has my back.”

A caring supervisor can be the deciding factor that determines whether the employee engages in the lean strategy or stands on the sideline. In the past environment of only compliance, you may have been able to get away with ignoring the humanistic side of business, but when developing a culture of excellence through lean principles of continuous improvement, caring and trust are must-haves.

Caring in Action

The following are a few examples of what a caring supervisor does to show that they genuinely care.

Provide a safe work environment. What can be more uncaring than not providing a physically safe workplace? However, along with physical safety, psychological safety is also vital to demonstrate care. By eliminating the fears that hinder participation and open communication, you send a clear message: “Your opinions and concerns matter, and I want to hear them.”

Be available. Whether you call this “going to the gemba” or “management by walking around,” your accessibility sends a strong message regarding your level of caring. The supervisor’s words “just let me know if you have any issues. I’m here for you” mean absolutely nothing if the message sent through their actions, or lack thereof, is “You are not really a priority. I am just too busy with other things. I really don’t care that much.”

Listen; really listen. I believe that many of us are poor listeners, and we need to constantly work at improving in this area. However, I do think that most of us are pretty good at detecting whether someone is really listening to us or just checking off the box that states “listen to your employees.” Listen with empathy and a desire to truly understand the message the employee is sending—not only with their words, but also tone, facial expressions and body language.

Develop people. Developing people to become better problem-solvers and idea-generators is a core role of lean leaders at all levels. However, the caring supervisor does more. They support growth towards the employee’s longer-term personal goals and aspirations. This long-term support sends a clear message of care, which will benefit the organization as well in the future.

Acknowledge personal issues. Employees are people who have a life outside of the factory with challenges that may affect what goes on inside the factory. Pretending that this is not the case is a quick way to demonstrate that you really don’t care about the employee. But if you show empathy, listen and genuinely demonstrate that you care by providing any support you can, you send the opposite message.

Show appreciation. We humans like to be appreciated, and we absolutely hate not being appreciated and feeling that we are being taken for granted. If “you obviously don’t care about me as a person, and you treat me as simply a piece of human capital” is the message you are sending, how can you possibly be surprised when folks are simply going through the motions and not engaging in the continuous improvement strategy. And never forget that a sincere, simple “thank you” says a lot. Repeat it often!

Caring Summary

The above are only a few examples of what a caring supervisor does. Don’t overcomplicate this crucial topic. Follow the golden rule. Consider your own experience. Have you ever been able to do your best and take risks when you have had an uncaring supervisor? It’s about aligning leader behavior with the lean principle of Respect for People. The result? You show that you care, which builds trust. A lean transformation will not be successful without trust!

Yes, any change must appear logical to us, but we are emotional beings. And without a caring environment of trust that gives us the courage to move forward, out of our comfort zone, a majority of the workforce will not engage.

All leaders must wake up to the fact that it’s these so called “soft” people issues that will release the human capability and creativity that lead to bottom-line results.

What’s a good first step? How about making this a key topic of your leadership development and coaching process?