1. Use People’s Names

Not only is the use of names a safety feature in high-risk endeavours such as healthcare, it also creates tighter teams and facilitates performance. Hearing your name spoken by another person causes a surge of oxytocin release that leads to stronger interpersonal bonding and better relationships.

2. Leaders Walking Around

How can a leader understand their organisation if they only see the inside of the executive suite or their own office? How can they feel belongingness, and be seen to belong, if they are never seen? Workers trust and respect a visible leader – it is critical to organisational success.

3. Ask Questions

While walking around and becoming a more trusted leader, the best way to learn is by asking questions. In this way you will immediately gain access to multiple viewpoints, unappreciated facts, and understanding gained through time in the workplace. Benefit from the experience of others. Not only will you hear multiple perspectives, you will also start to engage your workers and team. If you don’t know what to ask, try these:

• What do you need right now to help with your job?
• What advice do you have for management?
• What are you seeing that we could be doing better

4. Model the Values and Behaviours you want to see

For workers to have trust and affection for leaders, they must be shown trust and affection. The elements that you identify as lacking in your team or organisation are what you must deliver to others.

5. Encourage Human Interaction

Being with others has many benefits in addition to mere exchange of information. Relationships build culture. For example, if a meeting can be carried out in person rather than virtually – insist on an in-person meeting.

6. Foster a Culture of Learning and Forgiveness

While we all strive for excellence it is possible that this sentiment can become warped into a suboptimal culture where mistakes are treated with censure and focused on who is at fault rather than how the system did not enable the best outcomes. Negative outcomes are feared, suppressed, and ultimately hidden.

Many major errors result from multiple smaller incidences of poor communication. Negative relationship styles, siloes, and silence can lead to disaster. Honesty and openness facilitate communication that leads to learning, innovation, and improved performance.

7. Be a Beginner

Understand that while you may have an opinion or sense of a problem, others will see things with different viewpoints. Be humble. Encourage ‘Beginner’s mind’. Hear from all voices. Diversity of opinion is critical to nuanced understanding and better definition of problems.

8. Understand Problems at a Granular Level

Get information from as close to the source as possible. Involve those who do the work, rather than merely their superiors. Talk to those involved in delivery of the processes under review. Allow the ‘coal-face’ workers to help craft the solutions. Become an inclusive rather than extractive organisation.

9. Build Positive Emotion and Momentum

Comment on things done well. Express gratitude. Not only is this scientifically proven to enhance one’s own wellbeing, it will also lead to improved organisational culture.

10. Promote an Enjoyable Workplace

Humans like to do more of what they enjoy. People operate more efficiently where they are relaxed and feel supported. Improving workplace conditions will lead to improved staff commitment and reduced disengagement and attrition – this will retain corporate knowledge with multiple downstream benefits. Make the workplace kinder and more fun.