People First Leadership – Rebuffing the Negative Stigma

Following my last post on People-First Leadership, I received a fair amount of feedback on the topic and not all of it was positive. This surprised me at first as I’ve always had the mindset of people-first, but clearly there is a different mindset of a need to be firmer and more commanding as a leader in order to get the work done.

There’s a frustrating misconception about People-First Leadership, that it’s somehow weak, ineffective, or focused on making people “feel good” rather than delivering results. I’ve had comments in the past where I was told that I clearly needed a therapy couch in my office (in the days that managers had their own offices) as clearly everyone felt they could talk to me. And this was said with negative connotations that I was too soft and accommodating and needed to be more aloof.

It’s the age-old debate of whether we prioritise people or performance?

Here’s the spoiler though, it’s not an either-or scenario. The best results come from teams who feel valued, empowered, and trusted. And this comes from teams who are lead with compassion, empathy and support.

So let me discuss some of the challenges that were pushed at me.

Challenge 1: People-First Leadership Means Being Soft

There’s a belief that leading with empathy equates to avoiding tough conversations or being overly lenient. But in reality, strong leadership isn’t about control, it’s about trust, collaboration and bringing the teams on the journey with you.

• People-first leaders hold teams accountable, but they do it in a way that fosters growth, not fear.
• They have difficult conversations, but with the intent to support, not to tear down.
• They create environments where challenges are embraced rather than avoided.

I’ve had a few scenarios in my career where I’ve had to show strength in challenging situations, whether that be around going into bat for my team to challenge a negative perception or whether it be about a performance issue with someone in the team which I need to call out. This I would do by having conversations with the person, not to tear strips off them and tell them they are rubbish, but to show them where some of the gaps are, then collaboratively work with them to find ways to fill the gaps. Of course, sometimes, this hasn’t resolved the issues and formal processes have had to be followed, but I would always at least try and be supportive.

Challenge 2: People-First Leadership Reduces Productivity

“If you focus too much on people, won’t you lose sight of goals?” was one of the quotes from the messages and to be honest, my answer is simple..

“Quite the opposite. People who feel heard, respected, and supported work harder because they want to, not because they have to.”

That’s not to say there doesn’t need to be structure and awareness of the direction and the end goal. But this can be done without hitting people over the head with it continuously until they reach it.

• A culture of trust leads to faster decision-making, higher engagement, and better outcomes.
• Psychological safety doesn’t mean lowering standards, it means creating an environment where people strive for excellence without fear of failure.

In some of my previous roles, I have built high performing teams through collaboration, trust and empowerment. Whether this is having all-day workshops to collaboratively build a strategy or work on a POC for a new technology, all being on the same page and walking in the same direction is much more powerful.

When the team feels part of the journey, they will run through walls for you and you can have full trust in their ability to deliver.

Challenge 3: It’s Just a Feel-Good Leadership Trend

People-first leadership isn’t just a nice to have, you have a team of people that need leading, it should be the natural choice. People are unique, have feelings and needs, as a leader you need to lean into this to get the best out of them. Therefore it becomes a real advantage having leaders who can do this.

Companies that invest in their people retain top talent, drive innovation, and outperform those that treat employees as replaceable parts.

• Google’s Project Aristotle proved that the highest-performing teams prioritise psychological safety.

• Studies consistently show that engaged employees lead to stronger business performance.

In my last role, there were a few times where there were projects I was asked to get engaged in because the project was failing and it needed someone to step in and put their arms around the team. By doing so, I was able to remove the disillusion, get them motivated and helped recover the deliveries. This happened through me being willing to jump in side by side with the team, work through the challenges, find ways to connect with them all as people and build a plan to show a path to green. Does this make me soft? Or does this show I can create high performing teams through a people first approach?

Reframing the Conversation

There are some key one-liners which really frame this for me and I feel I could build some graphics for these

• People-First Leadership isn’t about “being nice”, it’s about leading in a way that gets the best from people.
• People-First Leadership is not about avoiding accountability, it’s about holding teams to high standards while supporting their growth.
• People-First Leadership is not about sacrificing performance, it’s about creating sustainable success.

And finally…

• People-First Leadership isn’t weak, for me, it’s the strongest form of leadership there is.

What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts…