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Today is my first anniversary at Eyes On Eyecare. One of the greatest benefits of my first year at Eyes On Eyecare has been the freedom to bring my full experience, judgment, and creativity to work. I don't spend nearly as much energy worrying about how an idea will be received. I can spend that energy developing it, sharing it, and working with others to improve it. And I believe the company benefits when more people have that same freedom.
In previous roles, I sometimes felt that I needed to hold back or soften parts of myself. At Eyes On Eyecare, I have felt that burden lift. That experience has made me think more carefully about the environment people need to do their best work, and the environment they create for everyone around them.
Think of a meeting where someone has an idea but spends the majority of the time working out whether or not to actually put it forward. Perhaps they are worried about challenging a more senior member of the team, about being seen as overly enthusiastic, or about going about the problem in a different way than everyone else. In these circumstances, a perspective that could have been valuable to the company is withheld.
A person can spend considerable effort evaluating how others might respond before saying anything at all. For leaders, this raises a useful question about how to make people feel comfortable bringing things up in a conversation.
Patricia Faison Hewlin (2009) studied facades of conformity, which involve presenting agreement with organizational expectations that do not reflect a person’s private beliefs. Her survey of 238 employees found relationships among those facades, emotional exhaustion, and intentions to leave. The research gives leaders a reason to examine whether people feel pressure to appear agreeable while withholding what they actually think.
Professional judgment still requires people to think about when to speak, what language to use and the impact of their words. A good explanation can go a long way to help a colleague understand an idea they're not familiar with. Leaders can facilitate that judgment and make it easier for people to offer a respectful alternative point of view.
Feeling able to be oneself is closely tied to how people experience their work. Anna Sutton’s research (2020), covering 75 independent samples and 36,533 participants, found positive relationships between authenticity and both well-being and engagement.
Allow your team to leverage their strengths when they express their judgment. One person may be at their best when they're having a conversation; another may need time to write it down before they can discuss it. You can have shared expectations within a team and still allow people to contribute in the way that works best for them.
Authenticity is not only about being yourself; it's also about being aware of the impact your behavior has on other people. Hannes Leroy and his colleagues (2021) explored this balance in two studies. Authentic living related positively to the exchange of and integration of information when perspective taking was high, but negatively when perspective taking was low.
A practical starting point includes understanding another person’s reasoning before sharing your own initial reaction. Ask what information led them to their conclusion and what they see that others may have missed. Remain connected to your values and stay curious to get better information.
Autonomy becomes visible in the decisions people can make. A manager may say that they trust an employee, then require approval for every change. The employee receives responsibility for the result but has little room to decide how to achieve it.
Gavin Slemp and his colleagues (2018) reviewed 72 studies involving 32,870 participants. They found that perceived autonomy correlated with stronger motivation, well-being, and positive work behaviors. For executives, this research supports paying attention to whether people experience ownership over their work.
Think of a team member putting together a customer presentation. The leader can explain the why of the presentation, who the audience is, what information is required, and the deadline. They can then allow the individual to work out their own approach. They can agree on a review point without telling them exactly what each slide should be or what each sentence should say.
That approach gives both parties a clear sense of their responsibilities. The employee is in a position to use their strengths and the manager is available for advice. Over time these assignments can also be used as a means of developing judgement and leadership capability.
I remember identifying a pricing problem at a previous company. Customers were confused by our premium offering, and our sales team wasn't selling it. I had experience in pricing and packaging, and I believed we could solve the problem. When I proposed making a change, the answer was no. Leadership had an established sequence of priorities, and pricing wasn't on the list. I went back, gathered more evidence, and proposed a limited experiment. Eventually, I received permission to test the change. The premium offering went on to account for 30 percent of our sales.
I'm proud of that outcome, but I still think about what it took to get there. We spent time defending the opportunity to run an experiment when we could have been learning from it. We can't know exactly how much revenue the delay cost us, but we can see the value of the opportunity that was initially rejected. When organizations hire experienced people and then restrict their ability to apply that experience, they risk slowing the very improvements they hired those people to make.
This year, our team has exceeded its quota and business goals. We haven’t been able to execute on every idea I’ve put forward, but the team always listens to my business case. There is no pre-set order for how we do things; we are empowered to build and shape as we go. Sales hitting goal results reflect the work of many people, and many factors contributed. This experience has strengthened my interest in the conditions that help people bring more of their ability to work.
One of the things I appreciate most about Eyes On Eyecare is the opportunity to know colleagues as whole people. My colleagues have families, distinctive interests, and lives that extend well beyond their roles. Those relationships make work more enjoyable and help me understand the people I work alongside.
Lynn Shore and her colleagues (2011) describe inclusion through two needs: belonging to a group and having one’s uniqueness valued. A person should be able to feel part of the team while bringing a different background, perspective, or approach.
Leaders can use this idea of belonging when assigning work, when inviting input and when recognizing contribution. They can be aware of whether the same communication style gets attention in every meeting, or whether people share their thoughts in different ways. Team leaders can also facilitate personal connection while respecting how much each individual is prepared to open up.
The invitation to contribute must be present even in the face of disagreement. Edmondson’s work (1999) on psychological safety and team learning (including the willingness to talk about mistakes and ask for help) is well known. A useful test for a leader comes when someone brings unwelcome information. A customer may be unhappy, a deadline may be unrealistic, or a proposal may need substantial revision. The leader’s response tells people what to expect the next time they raise a concern.
I think leaders sometimes underestimate how long those responses stay with people. Over time, that can change who speaks, which problems get surfaced, and what opportunities the organization gets to consider. People need to know they can disagree with a decision, identify a problem or offer a different approach without having their character called into question.
Leaders have the opportunity to create these conditions every day. They can bring an idea to fruition which is currently incomplete. They can clarify a decision which someone else owns. They can respond to a request for help in a constructive way. They can also ask for feedback on their own behavior in terms of how easy or difficult it makes it for people to participate.
Useful questions include asking when someone feels most able to contribute and where they find themselves holding back. Leaders can ask which decisions need their involvement and which ones the employee feels ready to own. The value comes from listening to the answers and following through with a specific change.
As I move into my second year at Eyes On Eyecare I'm very grateful for the freedom we have to do things in our own way. I want to keep on creating, writing, developing people and helping the business to grow. I also want to be able to pass on that experience to the people around me in the sense that we give them the space to use their own judgment, to have their own ideas and to develop their own way of leading. Onwards!
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