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Work Management for Teams

Leading with Respect

Published By Mike Orzen

Are you accidentally creating a culture that makes it difficult for your employees to thrive? If so, it may be stunting the success of your Lean-Agile-DevOps initiative. Leading with respect is the key to the success of any transformation, yet it’s often one of the more difficult practices to implement across the organization. Keep reading to learn how to create a culture of transparency, trust, and teamwork in your organization.

Isn’t Respect a Given?

It’s not something most managers would admit to, but one of the most difficult things to “get right” in management is leading with respect. Why? Because without an intentional, disciplined practice, it’s difficult to keep respect top of mind — and it’s more complicated than it sounds. Although we think we respect others, our behavior often sends a very different message.

Very few organizations have identified the actual behaviors that are key to building a respectful organization. I think this quote by Peter Drucker summarizes what happens when respect is missing from an organization: “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.”

Without an understanding of what it actually takes to empower the people around you to do their best work, it’s difficult to build and evolve a culture of respect.

Defining “Respect”

Perhaps one of the main reasons organizations aren’t promoting respectful cultures, is that their definition of respect might be too narrow. Leading with respect in Lean organizations goes beyond treating people kindly, being helpful to those around you, and saying hello to coworkers when you walk in the door.

It includes these things, of course, but goes deeper, into the way we design (or fail to design) processes, policies, and other systematic practices that dictate the way we work. As Lean leaders, it’s our job to build a culture in which healthy conflict, collaborative decision making, and a diversely talented workforce combine to create a respectful organizational culture.

In this Webinar

In this webinar, I’ll explain how to create a culture of trust, transparency, and teamwork in your organization. First, I’ll discuss why leading with respect is so critical to the success of your Lean, Agile, or DevOps transformation. You’ll learn the important distinction between respecting people and leading with respect. Finally, you’ll learn seven core practices that will help you create a culture of respect in your organization.

Watch the Recording

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Written by Mike Orzen

With a consulting and coaching career spanning more than 20 years, Mike has gathered a unique blend of Lean, IT, healthcare, and operations experience that he uses to coach organizations pursuing enterprise excellence. He is the co-author of Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation winner of a Shingo Research Award, and The Lean IT Field Guide. Mike helps companies on lean journeys through Mike Orzen & Associates. Connect with him at [email protected].