Is respect the most important role of a Leader?

Conventional workplace wisdom says that a ‘goodʼ boss manages people effectively. This is vital if people are to achieve optimum productivity levels each day – and happy staff members tend to be more hard working and loyal to their organisation.

This has implications for the L&D professional — who not only has to help to develop bossesʼ leadership/management skills but must also help the workers achieve these optimum productivity levels (and stay as happy as possible in the process).

In her book, Learning for Organizational Development: How to design, deliver and evaluate effective L&D, Eileen Arney says, “Much research has been devoted to explaining whether there is a positive relationship between particular people management practices and improved performance, and a number of studies have found that there is… Further research into the people management practices associated with improved performance practices associated with improved performance has identified the importance of line managersʼ leadership and management skills…”

She goes on to identify some of these, including highlighting having a boss who shows respect, and workers being able to raise matters of concern.

Focus

However, while not all organisations are receptive to the ‘softerʼ side of people management practices, every organisation needs to focus on productivity, profitability and the bottom line.

Numerous reports demonstrate that, alongside the high cost involved in replacing staff members who leave because theyʼre unhappy for whatever reason, appreciating and valuing employees both saves and makes money.

Basically, itʼs the soft skills that generate the hard cash. So, demonstrating effective people management practices are among the key skills for would-be successful bosses because, when the right people do the right things, they sustain the organisationʼs bottom line.

These days, business success isnʼt about who owns the biggest machines but, rather, about who has the best people. Weʼve moved from the ‘industrial workerʼ to the ‘knowledge workerʼ stage in our economic development. So, if you want to grow a modern business, youʼre dependent on people.

Moreover, if you develop peopleʼs soft skills, your business success wonʼt just depend on you. Rather, itʼll rest with all the workers in your organisation.

Leading adults to learn

This raises the issue of how you lead adults to learn.

The theory and practice of getting people to learn is usually called pedagogy — yet pedagogy is ‘the art and science of educating childrenʼ. Andragogy defines ‘the art and science of helping adults learnʼ.

Pedagogy tends to take place via teacher-led instruction to meet a defined curriculum often dictated to the learner. Andragogy is more learner-focused. Itʼs an approach for which Plato, Socrates, and Confucius, among others, were advocates.

The most well-known research into andragogy was conducted by Malcolm S. Knowles. He believed that adult learners:

1. Need to know why something is important — so they must know the reason for learning something.

2. Must have some experience — since experience provides the basis for learning activities.

3. Like to be self-directed — that is, they want to be responsible for their decisions on education; and involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.

4. Need to feel the learning is relevant and will benefit them — notably, the learning must have immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives.

5. Prefer to solve problems — so adult learning is problem-centred rather than content-orientated.

6. Must be ready and motivated — that is, adults respond better to internal rather than external motivators.