Dr James Doty, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University, performs surgery on a child’s brain tumour. Still, the procedure is disrupted when an assistant makes a mistake that causes bleeding and impairs Doty’s vision. Doty has to rely on touch to fix the problem and ultimately succeeds.
Most of us are not brain surgeons. We all encounter situations in which an employee’s mistake has the potential to seriously impact an important project.
How do leaders address underperformance or make a mistake?
The natural response would be frustration. Especially when an employee makes a mistake that impacts an important project or reflects poorly on the leadership. The traditional approach is to reprimand the employee in some way as a way to teach them a lesson and prevent future mistakes. Expressing our frustration may relieve our stress and anger and help prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future.
However, some managers take a different approach and respond with compassion and curiosity. This creates an opportunity to understand what caused the mistake and how to prevent it in the future. While managers may still feel frustrated, they can set aside their judgment and use the situation as an opportunity for coaching.
Compassion and Curiousity
Leaders who can respond with compassion and curiosity increase employee loyalty and trust. Conversely, reacting with anger and frustration erodes loyalty. The response erodes loyalty and trust and inhibits creativity by increasing employee stress. Creating an environment where the dominant emotion is fear, anxiety and lack of trust makes people shut down. If people have fear and anxiety, from neuroscience, their threat response is engaged, and their cognitive control is impacted. The behaviour would default to fight-or-flight mode. As a consequence, their productivity and creativity diminish.
Suppose a manager responds to an employee’s mistake with frustration and anger. In that case, the employee may become less willing to take risks in the future due to fear of negative consequences for making mistakes.
However, when you express negative emotions like anger as a leader, your employees view you as less effective. Conversely, being likeable and projecting warmth — not toughness — gives leaders a distinct advantage. Fostering a culture of a safe environment encourages experimentation, which is critical for creativity.
Carrots and Sticks don’t work
The traditional approach of carrots and sticks, where the motivation around incentives to motivate and punishments to set an example, no longer work as these programs are brittle and temporary. People are most motivated when they feel respected by their organization and for their work. This leads to a model called RESPECT.