3 ways to be a better leader right now

Why leadership fails — and 3 ways to get on the path to growth, trust and success

September 27, 2023 5:27 PM

Rachel Druckenmiller didn't see it coming: one second she was crossing the street with her husband, and the next she was in a hospital trauma room with a compression fracture in her back.

While the experience eventually changed her life, it was the last thing she needed in the midst of an already difficult year, she shared at this year's Benefits at Work conference in San Diego, where Druckenmiller appeared as keynote speaker on Wednesday. It eventually taught her a valuable lesson about leadership and what it means to bring compassion and understanding to any role.

"All of us have had those 'I didn't see it coming' moments," she said. "Moments where you got totally blindsided, personally or professionally, and you had to figure out what to do in response to that. And guess what? These moments are going to keep running for the rest of our lives."

Druckenmiller — a former benefits professional turned speaker, leadership expert, and founder of Unmuted — said these moments can be translated into a leadership strategy she likes to call "getting to know the soul behind a role." This means employees and employers alike are encouraged to bring their best and their worst self to work, and is a critical part of successful recruiting and retention strategies. That's been especially evident after a three-year pandemic and a permanent shift in the way we work.

"Dealing with all of the stress and strain and the loss, grief and change has been exhausting for all of us," she said. "It's really hard to be purposeful and thoughtful when you're feeling this way. It's hard to think about what you could do to be caring toward people because we just don't have the capacity to do that when we're feeling this depleted."

But being an intentional person and leader doesn't need to be hard — though it can be made easier by asking some hard questions: "Who am I helping and why does it matter?" "How can I make a contribution?" "How can I best support you right now?" Then, it's about having the willingness to react and change to what comes up.

Druckenmiller broke down how leaders can find answers to those questions, and what it means to put it into practice:

Cause

To be successful in managing people, leaders have to understand their own purpose, in order to instill it in their workforce. Employees need to feel as though their work matters and contributes to a larger mission — and it's a leader's job to remind them of that.

Druckenmiller shared that getting vulnerable with your workforce and sharing your own journey of career growth or challenges can help foster deeper connections and prevent disconnect.

"If people feel disconnected and they don't know where they're helping or why it matters, they're going to be checked out," she said. "This is where the quiet quitting trend can come from because employees think that if no one cares what they're doing or that no one notices and values it, what's the point?"

Curiosity

While curiosity around an employee's life and motivation can be beneficial for leaders in understanding their team, it's important to be curious about yourself, too, Druckenmiller said. An effective leader not only understands the qualities they possess when they're doing a good job, but explores the ones they display when they're ineffective. It's also important to ask the people you lead every day to point out those characteristics and accept feedback or constructive criticism, just as long as you're willing to act on it.

"We need character driven leaders now more than ever," Druckenmiller said. "We need leaders who show up with behaviors and qualities that are intentional. Those are things that really make a difference."

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Care

At the end of the day, employees need to know that their leader ultimately cares about them as a person.

"We get so focused on all the stuff we have to do that we forget the things that really matter," Druckenmiller said. "But the way that we treat people in our care affects the way they go home and treat people in their care."

Whether it's making it a point to ask an employee how they're doing or making the effort to go out and connect over coffee with a new employee, there are many ways an employer can show employees just how valued they are.

"In order to show up and be our best, we have to feel like we are somebody who matters."