Rethink Leadership for Greater Engagement & Productivity

The title “people manager” puts people in resistance mode, slows progress, and makes work miserable. Most stereotypes about work are negative: the message is that it’s necessary for a paycheck while it’s also a place workers want to get away from ASAP.

Of course, there are exceptions, but that’s because there are jobs where people aren’t managed.

No one wants to be managed.

We’re wired to follow a leader and we love collaborating with a team. But we don't want to be managed.

The Gallup organization routinely surveys workers across the world. Engagement hovers around 21 percent. Gallup reported, “Employees everywhere don't necessarily hate the company or organization they work for as much as they do their boss. “

So, it’s not the work per se, it’s the experience of being directed and controlled. Google “what people hate about their boss” and you’ll be returned a familiar list: incompetence, rudeness, unpredictable emotions, and taking credit for others’ work.

How work gets done in organizations requires a fundamental shift in mindset.

The solution is ubiquitous leadership and ownership. It’s teaching, expecting, and allowing everyone to both lead and follow and to own their actions and results.

It requires embracing the truth that leadership isn’t a title, it’s an action and relationship. Collectively, we must manage the work and lead the people.

What you’ll learn

• How damaging manager/employee dynamics are and how to explore options for working differently
• The possibilities that open when organizations phase out the role and title, “people manager” and then expand leadership training to match this new style.
• How to shrink the resistance gap between management and employees by shifting focus from managing to leadership, collaboration, and accountability, the three accelerants of growth.

Imagine, for a moment, if everyone in your organization gave “it” their all – for themselves, their colleagues, and their leaders – and held nothing back; what would be possible?

A Great Place to Work Starts with YOU

Only 21 percent of employees feel engaged at work and 33 percent feel they’re thriving overall, according to Gallup’s 2022 State of the Global Workplace Report. These figures leave a lot of room for reflection and rethinking our relationship with work and with each other.

As a leader in your organization, you see the toll low morale, motivation, and engagement have on your workplace. And you might relate. Leaders, of course, aren’t immune to some of the same stresses and frustrations. You may feel the added burden of having to put on a happy face and keep forging ahead.

You may worry for yourself and others that time is passing while wondering if you’re on the right path. Life is both too short and too long not to feel fulfilled and engaged with our work. After all, we’ll spend more than 13 years of our lives there!

Having a sense of positive impact and satisfaction at work is possible for you and your employees. And it might be more achievable than you think. This talk focuses on our individual roles- and responsibilities- for making our organizations great places to work. It challenges some of our default thinking on what work “should” be and opens new possibilities.

What you’ll learn:

• How our traditional thinking and assumptions about work are holding us back
• How work has changed over time and evidence that we’re on the cusp of massive change in how we’re organized to get work done
• Why disengagement is so common, how it’s perpetuated, and how we can start to shift our workplace cultures
• How to dramatically improve engagement by focusing on leadership and ownership for all

More About Robin

I am a creative problem-solver who is hell-bent on helping others get the results they want in life and work. As a strategy consultant and executive coach, I enter every engagement with resourcefulness, tenacity, and a can-do attitude. (All the credit goes to my no-nonsense parents who modelled this for me at a young age). In fact, I thrive in chaos; I scan for patterns, make connections, and design a way forward.

Over the past two decades supporting clients in government and private businesses, I have coached and consulted leaders and groups looking to improve their effectiveness, up their impact, and get more done. From interpersonal aspects of work to analytical and technical tasks, I help my clients clarify what is needed, what is missing, and what is next within their business. I engage with clients in three primary ways:

My books:

• Flock: Getting Leaders to Follow is an Amazon best-seller in Organizational Behavior.
• Own It: Drive Your Career to a Place of Happiness and Success

I write a weekly leadership column for Inc.com. I’ve also published in Business Insider, GovExec, GovLoop, and Bloomberg Government.

Outside of work, I am a mother of three energetic kids in the D.C. metropolitan area. I flourish when working towards a personal goal, which has, most recently, been racing.