The transformational benefits of treating every employee as a leader

We’re not alone. A study from the O.C. Tanner Institute found that organizations “that treat every employee as a leader create the best leaders —and the best cultures.” These companies have higher scores across 10 different metrics, such as engagement, inclusion, and employee experience. Burnout levels drop.

Why does this happen? Because it delivers a fundamental shift that gives people “greater autonomy and opportunity” and broadens development opportunities, the report explains.

To make this system work, you need to establish what leadership means in the organization. At Gympass, we make clear that leaders have the responsibility and accountability to make decisions. Not only do they have permission to create new projects and try out new ideas within their scope, but they are also expected to.

Throughout my career, I’ve often seen fear hold back innovation. People are afraid that their idea might fail, that they’ll come across as “rocking the boat” unnecessarily, or that they’re overstepping their bounds. They think that if they simply do things the way everyone else is doing them, they’ll avoid all these problems.

So, when they get an idea, they either don’t speak up or they ask their managers to sign off on it first. In these companies, managers often then ask their higher-ups, and so on, until ideas just fall through the cracks.

Numerous employees have told me that by calling them all leaders, we have empowered them to experiment with changes. For example, one team member in talent acquisition saw that we were having trouble hiring a certain profile of candidate. So, they changed the questions they were asking in the recruiting process. The change worked. This employee ended up training others to make similar changes.

Similarly, junior recruiters tried changing the types of tests we give different candidates and the stages at which candidates take those tests. The recruiters then came together, discussed what worked well, and put changes into action across the board. It may sound unusual, but rather than creating mass confusion, it allowed simultaneous experimenting to determine what works better. The result was a faster, more successful hiring cycle.

BROADER LEADERSHIP MODEL

We also tell our staff that being a leader means more than just creating new ideas and projects and seeing them through. We have a leadership model with three pillars that we apply to all employees: Build trust; inspire and empower others; and drive performance.

In career conversations and performance reviews, we speak with each employee about these pillars, and look for them to demonstrate actions in keeping with each category. What have they done recently to build trust with fellow employees and/or customers? How have they inspired or empowered colleagues? How have they affected organizational growth?