WHAT CHANGES WILL YOUR PEOPLE NOTICE IN YOUR LEADING IN 2025, DO YOU THINK?

As you juggle your December calendar to accommodate your social obligations at work and at home, perhaps you are also juggling your mixed perceptions of how you have done this year in your leading. Has it gone well? Have you managed your various crises and near-misses successfully? Is the Board rumbling and grumbling, or did they smile benignly while you were presenting your final report for the year?

So how did you go? Be honest with yourself. No-one else is going to judge you. How did you go? What did you learn? What will you strive to change in your leading next year? What needs to become more obvious in your leading? What do you need to do less of?

Inc contributor Marcel Schwantes suggests that as you think ahead to improving your leadership skills in 2025 and beyond, these ways of leading and behaving will profoundly impact individuals and teams and will stand the test of time (see Four crystal-clear signs to spot someone with good leadership skills, in Inc, 10 Dec 24).

Flip the Leadership Pyramid

In a classic organisational structure, the hierarchy resembles a triangle with the CEO at the top, followed by various levels of management beneath, Schwantes reminds you, going on to say that the leadership model that I coach and train CEOs to adopt, however, is the model of Servant Leadership, which involves flipping the traditional top-down hierarchy, and  is practised by some of the largest and most profitable companies worldwide. He might have added that it is also practised by some of the most successful and highly-regarded non-profit organisations such as schools, community service organisations and other institutions.

In the Servant Leadership model, customers and clients are at the top of the pyramid, because serving them and meeting their needs is the primary purpose of the company or organisation. Then, customer-facing employees – the people doing the organisation’s actual work, such as service staff, classroom teachers, doctors and nurses - are prioritised and positioned right below the customer, higher in the organisation than the CEO. The role of those who lead these teams of operational staff is to serve their best interests, to set them up for success, to acknowledge and value their contribution and to ensure that they grow and develop both personally and professionally.

Set your people up for success

While Schwantes acknowledges that many individuals in leadership and management roles often prioritise their own performance and career advancement over the unique needs of their team members, your success as a leader or manager is not determined by personal achievements but rather by the success of the team as a whole. A Servant Leader focuses on empowering individuals to excel as well as on fostering an environment where everyone can succeed together.

One of the key ways in which a Servant Leader accomplishes this is to:

Acknowledge your people for their personal accomplishments

As an accomplished leader already, you may have bought into the idea that praising people for going above and beyond is a good thing for business. It is, and in fact, research confirms this, Schwantes affirms. He advocates that you go further, indicating you should recognise your people – publicly when appropriate, or just as successfully, privately in informal, casual conversations - not only for their business accomplishments but also for their milestones outside of work, such as birthdays, awards, and family celebrations.

More broadly, Schwantes argues that acknowledging people’s achievements is only half the story. What people really long for at work is being treated with respect and dignity—being dealt with as human beings and not merely as employees, he declaims (see Three clear signs to quickly identify someone with good leadership skills, in Inc, 20 Nov 24). In workplaces where people model and share common values like respect and dignity, there’s acceptance of one another, Schwantes continues. Employees are allowed and expected to be themselves at work, whatever that is — within the context of achieving the goals and mission of the organisation.

Servant Leaders set the example in this regard, of course. As part of acknowledging their people as valued members of their team, they show respect and treat people with dignity. They clear the path for their success and wholeheartedly support their personal development as human beings as well as nurturing their professional competencies.

An important question a leader should be asking a team member is, “What can I do to support your development and help you reach your goals?”  Schwantes counsels. Your people will appreciate your personal interest in them and will feel more willing to be deeply engaged and committed to striving with you and their colleagues towards your agreed shared goals.

This means you must commit yourself in 2025 to:

Grow your people

The best companies of those I have tracked for nearly a decade have consistently stood apart for their efforts to help employees reach their full potential, Schwantes attests, adding that this trend is still true today as technology continues to advance.

In these exemplary companies and organisations that are committed to growing their people, these personal and professional development opportunities aren’t limited to high-potential employees, Schwantes emphasises, noting that the best companies and employees across roles have access to real-time feedback and growth opportunities, enabling them to reach their potential and become even more effective at their jobs.

Schwantes shares that one strategy from a Fortune 500 client involved replacing yearly performance reviews with feedback offered in real time or during career-centred conversations held every quarter. According to Schwantes, this method ensured employees stayed accountable and were helped to remain on track with their performance goals because they had opportunities to discuss their performance improvements more frequently with their manager. More frequent conversations with their managers also enabled them to discuss their career development interests. Offering opportunities for your people to continue their personal and professional growth and helping them to achieve their full potential can be a key retention strategy too, especially in times of staff shortages.

It is worth noting of course that personal and professional growth does not only emerge from structured training or courses, nor from regular professional performance conversations with immediate superiors. Personal and professional growth also occurs by cultural osmosis, where simply working within a supportive and positive organisational culture creates coincidental opportunities for team members to grow and flourish.

One key way to provide opportunity for this unintentional but highly desirable kind of personal development is for the leader to ensure that they

Nurture psychological safety in their teams

Schwantes explains that the term “psychological safety” was coined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who defines it as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.

What Edmondson found is that better-performing teams made more errors than worse-performing ones, Schwantes points out, allowing that you may see this as a negative, but here’s the catch: Edmondson found the best-performing teams were admitting to errors and discussing them more often than other groups did. In other words, what distinguished the best-performing teams was their innate culture of psychological safety, which facilitated a “climate of openness” to course-correct and cut through problems faster.

A cultural climate supporting psychological safety also permits people to offer up their innovative ideas and suggestions in meetings or conversations without fear of contradiction or ridicule, enabling collaborative groups and teams to advance and refine their thinking in a positive, supportive atmosphere of authentic creativity.

As Schwantes avers, psychological safety curbs the fear that historically makes it difficult for workers to think clearly and act confidently on their own to make decisions. Schwantes adds that it also helps to eliminate the authoritarian tactics of bosses criticising or demeaning team members for making mistakes or not knowing things. Psychological safety also allows employees committed to displaying cultural values like honesty and integrity to challenge the incompetent authority of bosses who violate those same values, he states.

Lastly, Schwantes enumerates, with employee well-being a top priority, psychological safety decreases stress and burnout by giving people the autonomy to use their brains at critical times without asking for permission from micromanagers.

Schwantes lists a final leadership behaviour which stands out in a good leader:

Lead with transparency

For Schwantes, transparency is like the foundation of a solid house. Without it, things crumble—trust erodes, team dynamics break down, and toxicity seeps in. By contrast, when leaders model transparency, they create a culture where trust thrives, where individual egos take a back seat, and where collaboration rules.

In a transparent workplace, you’re less likely to see gossip, to hear backstabbing, or to encounter underhanded politics, Schwantes asserts, noting that that’s because teams feel safe to communicate openly and focus on working together to get things done. Transparency empowers the team to call out unhealthy behaviours early, stopping potential unwanted drama in its tracks.

But , Schwantes cautions, transparency has to start at the top. Senior leaders need to show the way by being honest about goals, challenges, and even their own mistakes. If someone isn’t pulling their weight, a transparent leader doesn’t let it fester. They address the issue head-on, with honesty and care, and give real, constructive feedback. Great leaders don’t just hope for transparency — they live it. And when they do, the entire organisation benefits.

In summary, What Marcel Schwantes wants for you in 2025 is a sharper focus on caring for your people. If you’ve ever had the chance to work under a good leader, you’ve probably noticed that they actually care about their people. Where would you be in your company, your organisation or your institution without your people? How can you not raise your eyes above your financial bottom line, your external examination results or your surgery backlog numbers, to realise that your key role as a leader is to help each and every member of your staff team grow and learn and succeed in their current roles and in their striving successfully to reach your shared organisational objectives?

Schwantes recognises that for many leaders, this doesn’t come naturally. It’s tough to balance caring for others when you’re under pressure to deliver results and meet expectations. But here’s the thing: Research—and countless stories from top leaders I have interviewed - shows that focusing on your people is a game-changer for the success of your business or organisation. It’s not just a feel-good approach, he adds; it’s smart strategy.

When leaders consistently show they care and work hard to foster the right environment, the positive ripple effects are undeniable.

Focusing on your people – that marvellous, creative, dedicated, selfless, inspired, uniquely gifted and talented team you are proud to call your staff – could be a game-changer for the success of your organisation too. Put it in your calendar for every day in 2025 – Care for my people today!

They’ll love it!