It goes without saying that all team members have inherent worth and value. While respect and trust are earned over time through actions, dignity is innate and part of the human condition. Leaders don’t give people dignity. They honor it through their actions and treatment of others. Or fail to.
At the core of all relationships, but especially those between a leader and team members, is the need for people to feel as if they are treated with dignity. But without a conscious understanding of how dignity is honored, leaders sometimes fall prey to actions that undermine the need for team members’ self-worth. In other words, it is easy to do harm to dignity without knowing it.
First and foremost, leaders who recognize the importance of treating others with dignity appreciate the unique identities people hold. The best leaders uphold and celebrate the passions, personalities, and self-images of their team members.
They afford team members the opportunity to express themselves authentically without judgment or derision. They are careful never to unintentionally challenge or question the reason for a team member’s sense of identity. They simply afford everyone on the team to engage others the way they want to be seen.
Inadvertently, leaders and organizations can sometimes impose negative identities on others. Policies that give team members numbers, rankings, labels, and descriptors can rob people of the dignity they desire.
Any action or policy that lumps people together and takes away their individuality has the potential to diminish the dignity of team members. That’s why good leaders refrain from generalizing warnings, admonishments, and challenges in their messages.
They are careful not to write group emails or engage in group discussions where they point out a negative that only applies to some people and not others. People interpret group messages as directed at them, whether they are or not, and this can quickly become a matter with implications for dignity.
Dignity in the workplace is also dependent on the ability to disagree. Leaders who value the right to disagree and encourage others to express their candid viewpoints in all interactions promote dignity.
Team members prize the autonomy leaders give them to express opinions not widely shared by others. When those views are not dismissed or denigrated, team members feel valued and respected.
Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. Good leaders are conscious of this and create relationships where others feel safe, heard, validated, recognized, and valued. They appreciate that people are unique, and their personal identities are invaluable and irreplaceable to them.
By giving them the space and appreciation to express themselves authentically, leaders can honor the dignity all team members need and deserve.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
