Relational leadership and management authority Cheryl L. Mason, J.D. is a TEDx speaker, author and CEO and Chief Catalyst of Catalyst Leadership Management. As the fourth presidentially-appointed, senate-confirmed — and the first woman and military spouse — to serve as the CEO / Chairman of the VA Board of Veterans’ Appeals, The Honorable Cheryl L. Mason has a proven track record of leading with an impactful morale-boosting, trust-based, people-centric approach. Mason also authored “Dare to Relate: Leading with a Fierce Heart.” She can be reached at catalystleadershipmgmt.com.

What do you do when you walk into an organization as the new leader and the organization is struggling with trust and morale issues from both employees and customers, recruitment and retention challenges, and reduced productivity?

That was what faced me as the new chief executive of my organization. My solution was different than many leaders and considered risky and ill-advised by all but a few.

I focused on encouraging and supporting the employees of the organization — as people. This meant getting to know something about them — their jobs, their concerns and their lives as people beyond work. The employees’ trust had been broken many times over. So, how does a leader build trust and create credibility? To do this, I called on my experiences as an employee. I remembered all too well the feeling I had as an employee — like I didn’t matter, I was just a cog in the wheel. I knew that my words and actions had to match, but even more than that — my intentions had to match, too.

I began to walk around the offices and schedule open office time — in person and virtually. I listened and learned. I fielded concerns, new ideas and general complaints. Now, before you say that is not the job of the chief executive, pause a moment and consider the following:

Where does the responsibility for the entire organization reside?

According to a sign on the desk of President Harry S. Truman, “the buck stops here.” So, while CEOs might delegate the gathering of the issues to others, I believe that the responsibility for addressing them sits with the CEO. If you, as the CEO, do not know what these issues are, how can you fix them?

Employees who do not believe the CEO cares about their problems will not raise them, instead, they fester and grow. In fact, when employees believe they do not matter at work, it shows in their output.

The magnitude of a leader’s impact often extends far beyond what you may comprehend, often affecting people’s lives beyond work. Recent studies from Deloitte, StudyFinds and The Workforce Institute, among many others, indicate that a person’s boss or job often negatively impacts their mental and physical health.

I knew that treating employees as people and valuing them also impacts the entire organization from hiring to operations to results.

As a new CEO, I needed to hear what the problems and concerns of the employees were, and I wanted to learn more about the employees who worked for me. I discovered that the employees needed technological tools to help with their work, but more importantly, they needed and wanted a leader who believed in and championed them. They found this in me.

As a legal organization, there was a long-held belief that lawyers were always the answer. If there was a logistics issue, put a lawyer on it. Technology needs, sure, detail one of the lawyers. Public relations — sure, a lawyer can handle that! Although the organization had a team of lawyers detailed to all these operational areas which pulled them off the primary work, the issues continued to grow. Lawyers are trained to research and advise, implementing usually requires subject matter experts. I found we had few of those.

As luck would have it, we did have a subject matter technology expert who was also a lawyer! He suggested some technological enhancements that improved workflow for his colleagues and increased output. He also was instrumental in advising me on hiring the right subject matter experts to further develop our technological innovations.

This led to more suggestions and solution-based ideas from the employees, some of which I implemented and gave the employees the credit. I fought for an increase in the budget to bring in more technology and hire additional people who could provide the support and assistance the employees and the organization needed.

I also championed and acknowledged them by thanking and rewarding them for their hard work and celebrating milestones for them and the organization.

What happened? I did not crash and burn — as some expected or wanted. This ill-advised leadership approach — relating to and engaging with employees as people — succeeded.

Interestingly, results were where we saw the first success, increasing outcomes by 50% in year one of my leadership. Retention, morale and recruitment followed in quick succession, supported by data and surveys. New technological tools combined with increased morale and retention led to results never thought possible — a 100% increase, which held steady during my entire leadership tenure even during a pandemic.

The reputation of the organization increased as employees recruited new employees. Customers and stakeholders were pleased. Other organizations began to ask how this happened, what was the secret?

The secret ingredient is caring for, relating to and investing in your most valuable resource — your employees. By dedicating time and effort to fostering authentic connections with your employees, you nurture and strengthen your most valuable assets and demonstrate genuine respect and concern for those important to them. People matter.

Here are my take aways:

1. Show your employees that you care for them as people by putting them first — in every aspect of your organization — technology, processes and communications.
2. Listen! Be seen and make yourself available to your employees and talk about life outside work — this was extremely important during the pandemic.
3. Invest your time in and on your most valuable resource — the people of your workforce — from office hours to walkabouts & publicly acknowledge the work and ideas of the employees.

And keep doing it over and over again.

What I found is the people who work for you want to know that you, their leader, is a human being — a person. And they want to know that you care about them as another human being — not just a part of the organizational machine. I&FMM.