How well a company does is closely related to habitual collaboration, which shapes the way people work together, wherever they are. A company’s performance as a whole can be improved by professionalizing these habits and routines.

Even in a challenging world with widespread pressure to improve business performance, we have a choice. We can view making major business decisions as the most important work we undertake as leaders, leaving effective implementation of these decisions to chance; or we can make the effective and respectful deployment of our decisions with customers, suppliers and employees just as important as making the difficult decisions themselves, yielding stronger results. During a career spanning almost 40 years, I have learned that treating everyone with dignity and respect during tough times spells the difference between having an optimistic, committed organization or a demoralized, disgruntled employee base that holds back progress, often prolonging the agony of poor business performance.

Can both be done?

Some might say, “It isn’t possible to treat people with respect and get results at the same time.”

I strongly disagree with this point of view. Making a difficult decision that impacts how we perform our jobs is not disrespectful. However, where we often fall short is in implementation of the decisions we make.

Whether it is modifications to how the work is done, or how it is staffed, when changes are made, impacted workers look for signals that they are being treated fairly, as human beings, in a dignified way. In addition, employees watch our every move to see how we treat their colleagues, who are in many cases their friends. Everyone quickly moves from the harsh reality of facing, for example, a staffing reduction, to closely watching how we implement the decision.

How you see your employees

It all boils down to how you value your fellow employees. And you need honest answers to hard questions. Are they important assets that help enable your company’s success? Or do you view them as a necessity that is dispensable and doesn’t matter to the success of your company or your personal success as a business leader?

A number of years ago, I was placed in charge of a business that had longstanding performance problems. The customers were not happy with our quality and service. My superiors believed the root of the problem was a workforce that didn’t care. The business had largely been run by edict from the top, with a frequent flow of demands and ultimatums ("fix this or else") without meaningful dialogue or soliciting ideas and building commitment to make needed changes.

Performance significantly improved only after we changed the approach to leadership, focusing on sincerely engaging all employees openly and honestly, sharing consistent and frequent communications about the state of the business and constantly seeking everyone’s ideas and commitment to help make things better.

Making choices

We generally make decisions with a disciplined process. We need to implement our decisions in a similar way, observing several important ground rules: treat every employee with dignity and respect, serve all customers without disruption, and communicate openly, honestly, and frequently to address rumors and confirm facts. What is the outcome when these tenets are followed? Employee loyalty and customer satisfaction improve, and financial results follow.

We have a choice as leaders: treat employees with dignity and respect, even under the most difficult circumstances, or demotivate our workforce by treating employees as if they are machines, without a heart and without a brain. If you select the latter course of action, prepare for an extended period of poor performance and a workforce that will forever question your motives, your integrity, and your capability to lead. Kenneth W. Freeman