Truly Human Leadership: Bringing humanity back to your business

Bob Chapman, Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, will be a speaker at this year's Made Extraordinary Summit (27-28 October). Here he details how leadership in industry should be part of the fabric of every business.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, we’ve seen unprecedented circumstances in the world. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a staggering loss of life. We’ve seen disruption at the most basic parts of our everyday. Businesses face many uncertainties as supply chains recover and many people reevaluate their place in the future of work.

Barry-Wehmiller, the company for which I have been Chairman and CEO for almost 50 years, is made up of more than 110 global acquisitions, most of which are in the industrial manufacturing space. Even before the pandemic, our industry has seen much change.

But there’s a bigger change that business has been reluctant to make, though they may be forced to consider it as people make decisions about their work and careers. 

They may be forced to put people first. And it is a sad reality that they will be “forced” to, since caring for the people within our business should not be the exception, it should be the norm. 

We at Barry-Wehmiller believe that we can operate with people and performance in harmony, not one in sacrifice of the other. Doing so requires patience and investment, but it is critical to having a thriving business that builds enduring value over time.

Fundamentally, businesses don’t create value; people do. When we provide meaningful work in an environment where they feel safe, valued, and trusted, amazing things happen. We see it every day across all our companies, all over the world. 

But this new way of thinking – where the intersection of people, purpose and performance work for the benefit of all – is counter-intuitive to the ways we, as business leaders, have been taught to think about success and profit. Making this transition with their boards and the financial community will be difficult. But it is the right thing to do.

Within Barry-Wehmiller, we measure success by the way we touch the lives of others. We call it Truly Human Leadership.

Here are three things we at Barry-Wehmiller have learned on our journey that may be of help for business leaders looking to do the right thing and implement care as an organizational practice:

Every one of the team members in your organizations is someone’s precious child. If you look at a spreadsheet of personnel, it’s easy to disregard the humanity in each and every name listed. They can easily be seen as numbers on a page that can be reduced or deleted when share price dips. When I was in business school, I was taught to view people as functions and objects for my own – or the company’s – financial success. But that’s not the reality. Johnny is not just a welder and Sally is not just an engineer. They are daughters, sons, siblings, spouses, or parents with hopes, dreams and responsibilities. As a leader, it is your responsibility to care for them as someone’s precious child whose life has been entrusted to you to steward for 40 hours or more a week.

Everyone wants to know that who they are and what they do matter. When you recognize that you have precious lives within your span of care, it is also your responsibility to nurture those lives and keep them safe. Listen to them. Really listen to them. Recognize and celebrate their accomplishments. Find ways to encourage and develop their gifts and talents. Have patience with them. Give them the freedom to innovate, as well as makes mistakes. No one wants to be managed. You don’t manage your spouse or child. People want to be mentored. They want to be coached. They want to be led.

Business could be the most powerful force for good if it simply cared about the lives it touches. Besides being the right thing to do, this paradigm shift when it comes to viewing the purpose of your companies can have a much larger impact than you may realize. The way we lead impacts the way people live. We’ve actually been told that that the person you report to at work can be more important to your health than your family doctor. This means that along your new journey, you must have the courage to care. You might have a hard time explaining the ROI of caring to your board or shareholders, but that’s because it’s priceless. It’s having teammates that are healthier because they feel valued and understood by their leaders and teammates. And when they go home to their loved ones, they share joy and fulfillment instead of the stress and bitterness of feeling unappreciated and insignificant.

A Gallup study I often quote revealed that the number one source of happiness in the world is a good job doing meaningful work among people you enjoy. This is still the world we work toward, despite the current crisis. This is the world we can still create through Truly Human Leadership as we rebuild our lives, our businesses, and our economy. Care is needed now more than ever as we navigate an uncertain future.

Bob Chapman will share his experiences and philosophy on Truly Human Leadership at the SafetyCulture Summit 2021: Made Extraordinary, a free two-day event set to inspire working teams around the world.  Learn how organisations can achieve extraordinary outcomes through great teamwork. Join Made Extraordinary physically at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, stream live from anywhere in the world, and catch up on demand in the weeks following the event. Reserve your FREE seat today.