Putting Your People First to Achieve Extraordinary Results
Picture two leaders facing the same challenge: a critical project falls behind schedule. The first storms into the team room, demanding explanations and extending work hours. The second pulls up a chair, asks what obstacles the team faces, and helps remove them individually.
Both might eventually complete the project. But which team will emerge stronger? Which will generate innovative solutions? Which will tackle the next challenge with enthusiasm rather than dread?
The difference lies in a fundamental reversal of traditional leadership thinking that transforms organizations by putting people at the center of leadership practice.
In 1970, Robert Greenleaf articulated a leadership approach that challenged dominant power structures. Having observed organizations for decades, he noticed something counterintuitive: the most effective leaders weren't those who commanded from positions of authority but those who approached their role as one of service to their teams.
This observation is so potent because it wasn't born from idealism but pragmatism. Greenleaf's framework emerged from witnessing actual results. He proposed evaluating leadership through its impact on people—whether they develop greater capability and autonomy and eventually adopt this approach themselves.
This isn't about appearing humble while maintaining an iron grip behind the scenes. It's about recognizing that organizational achievement flows naturally when leaders remove barriers to people's growth and performance.
Southwest Airlines demonstrates this principle in action. Their sustained profitability across five decades stems directly from their people-centred approach. While competitors focused on cost-cutting, Southwest created a workplace where employees felt valued, supported, and empowered—resulting in industry-leading customer satisfaction and employee retention.
What does this approach look like in practice? It demands abandoning several deeply ingrained leadership habits:
When faced with challenges, traditional leaders often respond with declarations and solutions, assuming their perspective is most valuable. By contrast, leaders who put people first approach situations with genuine curiosity.
During Ford Motor Company's dramatic turnaround, CEO Alan Mulally instituted a reporting system that initially revealed a troubling pattern—executives were reluctant to acknowledge problems. By celebrating the first executive brave enough to report difficulties, Mulally demonstrated that questions and honesty were more valuable than forced positivity. This cultural shift helped surface and solve critical issues that had previously remained hidden.
Many leaders measure their value by their decision-making authority. People-first leaders understand their primary function differently—not as controllers of work but as developers of capability.
Starbucks exemplifies this shift through its comprehensive education program, which invests in employees regardless of whether they remain with the company long-term. This approach creates immediate benefits (engaged, loyal employees) and long-term advantages (a pipeline of developed talent). The focus moves from extracting value from employees to creating value with them.
Traditional organizational structures funnel information and decisions through rigid chains of command. Leaders who prioritize people recognize that this artificial separation limits organizational intelligence and adaptability.
The Container Store has built its business model around the radical idea that retail employees should be thoroughly informed about business operations, compensated well above industry standards, and given substantial autonomy. This approach has yielded exceptional employee retention in an industry notorious for turnover, creating continuity of customer relationships and preservation of institutional knowledge.
While most organizations obsessively track performance metrics, people-centred leaders understand that performance follows purpose—not the reverse. Connecting daily work to meaningful impact activates intrinsic motivation more powerfully than any incentive system.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. exemplified this principle by connecting immediate actions to transcendent purpose. By helping people see their roles in creating a more just society, he mobilized commitment that withstood tremendous opposition and sacrifice.
The misconception that people-centred leadership is "soft" crumbles when confronted with data. Research published in the Journal of Business Ethics reveals that this approach correlates with concrete outcomes: higher job satisfaction, improved team effectiveness, enhanced innovation, and superior customer service.
A study of restaurants found that those led by people-focused leaders achieved 6% higher job performance, 8% greater customer satisfaction, and 50% better staff retention than their counterparts.
The financial implications are equally compelling. An analysis of public companies practicing these principles showed that they outperformed market averages by approximately three times over a decade.
These results emerge through several mechanisms:
• Psychological safety allows people to raise concerns early, preventing minor issues from becoming crises
• Autonomy generates creative solutions that centralized decision-making would miss
• Purpose-driven work accesses discretionary effort that transactional approaches cannot reach
• Genuine care creates reciprocity that manifests as organizational citizenship behaviours
Popeyes' transformation under CEO Cheryl Bachelder illustrates these principles in action. By prioritizing franchisee success instead of extracting short-term profits, she reversed the company's decline and delivered exceptional financial results—proving that focusing on stakeholder needs creates shareholder value.
This approach isn't without difficulties. Critics argue it lacks decisiveness in crises or applies only to specific sectors. These criticisms misunderstand the approach's nuances.
Putting people first doesn't mean avoiding difficult decisions or never giving direct instructions. Nelson Mandela's leadership journey demonstrates that serving others sometimes requires tremendous courage and making choices that may initially seem harsh or unpopular.
The real challenge lies in its demands on leaders themselves. It requires:
• Confronting your ego when it seeks credit or control
• Developing emotional intelligence to understand diverse needs
• Surrendering the illusion of perfect knowledge
• Balancing individual needs with collective purpose
• Cultivating patience for development when results pressure mounts
Cleveland Clinic's transformation illustrates these challenges. Their shift toward patient-centred care required physicians—highly trained experts accustomed to authority—to reimagine their roles as collaborators rather than directors. Through sustained development programs emphasizing emotional intelligence, they moved employee engagement scores from the 19th to the 87th percentile while improving clinical outcomes.
Implementing this approach doesn't require an organizational overhaul. It begins with practical shifts in behaviour:
Practice presence during interactions. Rather than mentally preparing your response while others speak, fully engage with their perspective. Ask clarifying questions before offering solutions.
Create development dialogues. Replace transactional check-ins with conversations about aspirations, obstacles, and growth opportunities. Connect individual development with organizational needs.
Increase information sharing. Experiment with making more information available to your team, including the context behind decisions and organizational challenges. Notice what happens when people understand the bigger picture.
Redirect recognition. Consciously highlight team members' contributions, being specific about both achievements and the values they demonstrate.
Build reflection habits. Schedule a regular time to assess whether your actions align with your intentions. Consider: "How have I removed barriers for my team this week? Where might I be creating obstacles?"
These practices apply regardless of the formal position. You can prioritize others' growth and development from any organizational role.
While the organizational benefits of people-first leadership are compelling, its significance extends beyond metrics. At its core, this approach acknowledges a fundamental truth: work occupies most of our waking lives and profoundly shapes our well-being and development.
By creating environments where people can contribute meaningfully, develop their capabilities, and connect with purpose, these leaders transform organizations from mere economic engines into platforms for human flourishing.
This leadership approach offers particular value in complex times requiring collaboration across boundaries. It builds the trust necessary for the vulnerable exchanges that innovation and adaptation demand.
Greenleaf's insight provides both a method and a measure: leadership succeeds when it helps people grow toward their potential and, in turn, supports others' growth.
Leaders constantly choose between self-protection and service, controlling outcomes and developing people. Evidence consistently shows that the latter path—though often requiring more patience and emotional maturity—produces superior results and more meaningful impact.
By prioritizing the growth and well-being of those they lead, leaders create conditions for extraordinary performance while contributing to something more profound than quarterly results: workplaces where human potential flourishes and ripples outward into families and communities.
That may be the most extraordinary result of all.
