What do you see?

'The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become.'
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I love this quote. It puts in very simple words something I have discussed with business owners, managers and supervisors many times. I will admit that sometimes I didn’t convince all of them of the impact they have on those who report to them. Some found it laughable.

It is a normal part of my interactions with clients that they will complain about their employees or be bewildered by them. It is par for the course. What the business owners, managers and supervisors forget is they employed these people. They chose the employees to be in their business or team.

The business owners, managers and supervisors also forget they are responsible for setting the boundaries and expectations for their employees and keeping their employees accountable. When we don’t do these things we often get a different result to what we expected or wanted. Funny that.

We cannot escape the parent/child relationship which is present in employer/employee relationships. It is etched in our DNA... or more specifically our social brain. Our tribal ancestors knew there had to be someone leading the tribe. Our organisational structures support the need for someone to lead the business and its teams. Yet we often don’t acknowledge our part in how our actions may impact the actions of others just as it does with our children.

When a leader sees his/her people in a certain way the subsequent outcomes may be positive or negative. And we can’t just blame the leader either. The members of a team will also influence these outcomes. Neuroscience has found people interpret the environment in which they work; the people, relationships, activities; and they attach meaning to it, they make interpretations and they act accordingly.

We are all responsible for our behaviour, but sometimes, dependent on our stage in life, we may let the actions of others determine how we behave.

How do you see others? How do you treat them? How is this affecting your business or team performance?