Appropriately, much of our focus when discussing people management issues revolves around “what”, “when”, and “how”. All of that is important, but sometimes our discussions risk deprioritising or, at least assuming too much about, “why”.
It might seem self-evident, but “why” is the foundational question and perhaps the most important concept to understand in people management. Without a thoughtful and credible answer to this question, the size and gradient of the mountain we’re about to climb will be higher and steeper.
For example:
Why we do what we do as an organisation is critical to understanding what we need to do, when we need to do it, and how we can best do it.
Why is the foundation of innovation.
Why we have our organisational values is critical to our people aligning and delivering the culture we want.
Why we are managing is critical to how we should manage.
Why we are meeting is the first question an employee will ask themselves, and will influence the employee’s approach to, and engagement within, the meeting.
Why we want someone to deliver a defined outcome is going to not only influence ability to deliver, but the quality of the outcome.
Why we are dismissing is critical to determine what we need to be able to prove. If we are dismissing for misconduct, the seriousness of the conduct influences the quality of the evidence we require to satisfy the Commission that the conduct occurred.
Why we dismissed is a critical question in every dismissal-based application. If we haven’t explained why we’re dismissing, we’ve created a reason vacuum that will be filled with the employee’s own theory.
Someone once said that people don’t leave organisations, they leave managers. That’s probably oversimplified, but there’s a lot more than a skeleton of truth in it. As people managers, our ability to understand and communicate “why” is one of our greatest tools to retain our people, to build the foundations of a high-performing team culture, to empower our people, to promote transparency, to build collaboration, to demonstrate trust, to drive engagement, and to minimise allegations of bullying and micromanagement.
“What”, “when” and “how” are all critically important, but if we’re focusing on those before we can clearly and credibly talk about “why”, then we’re likely to be a few steps ahead of where we should be.
