Actions For Managers

Managers play a central role in honoring dignity at work. They set the workplace tone and directly affect employee engagement, motivation and ability to deliver on goals. And employees take their cues from the behavior leaders model. We offer practical ways for leaders to advance dignity day-to-day.

The insights we share here help managers and other organizational leaders (those who run a project, team, shift, function, organization) honor dignity at work day-to-day in practical and actionable ways.

Managers are key, of course, to a dignity-centered workplace. Organizations act through their people. Leaders have a unique role in shaping the work environment and culture, and cues are taken from the example that they set, what they communicate as important, and what they choose to be silent on.

Yet, managers rarely “receive any guidance on how to uphold dignity in their workplaces.” (HBR) And they “are often unaware of the extent to which their actions and behaviors set the norms for the work environment.” (Hicks, “Leading With Dignity,” at 84) “Without dignity consciousness, even good people with good intentions can cause harm” (at 85)

“If more leaders … made the commitment to lead with dignity and pledged to create a culture that sustained and nurtured everyone’s value and worth, organizations and workplaces could be the platform where dignified human connections are cultivated -- places where the likelihood of triggering our self-preservation instincts is reduced.” (at 191)

Donna Hicks

Day-to-day dignity-centered leadership of course works in tandem with related organization-wide efforts that affect the employe experience, such as conduct policies, mission and values statements, and codes of conduct, as well as career development initiatives, compensation practices and benefits offerings. Many of these insights are also conceptually related to initiatives around diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias, allyship, discrimination and harassment, and effective communication that many organizations have offered. Much of that is covered in the “Actions for Organizations” section of this resource platform.

Here, however, we are focused specifically on actionable, ongoing behaviors to honor dignity of our colleagues, individually and as part of a team. This detailed compendium of actions and tools – which contains links for further reading – is focused on managers and other leaders, but many of the behaviors and actions here can, of course, be utilized by individual contributors.

While honoring dignity might be an organizational value or fundamental cultural principle, it needs to be activated through specific behaviors. “Most employees would agree in principle that [honoring dignity is among] worthwhile values. They might have very different notions, however, about what these abstract terms mean in practice. Leaders can provide additional guidance by spelling out a handful of expected behaviors consistent with each value. To the extent these guidelines shape behavior across all parts of the organization, they provide a consistent framework for different functions, business units, and teams to coordinate their activities.” (MIT Sloan)

Our actions for change, tools and recommendations help to fill in that framework.

Build trust with your team members

When colleagues trust each other, their work relationships are stronger, they are more committed to the organization, and they make more positive contributions. Productivity increases and stress levels drop, which improves retention and fuels stronger performance.

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Foster a safe and open environment

Safety is at the core of dignity. In a safe environment, people can speak up, give feedback, and bring up dignity violations without fear of being ignored or punished. They also need to feel confident that workplace safety measures are being followed.

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Prioritize an effective feedback culture

A culture of robust feedback—about team and individual performance, operations, and perceived dignity violations—promotes dignity. Poor delivery of feedback stands in the way of team growth, empowerment, and retention.

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Value team members’ differences

When they are understood, embraced, and explicitly shown to matter, differences among team members can foster inclusion and promote dignity. Managers who value differences can fully leverage the strengths of each individual and of the team as a whole.

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Manage team meetings inclusively

The operational norms teams follow when they meet directly affect dignity-honoring elements like inclusion, independence, fairness, and understanding. In these meetings, managers indicate whether all voices matter, how recognition is delivered, and how workplace stress is handled.

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Strengthen synergies across teams

Teams rely on synergies, partnerships, and feedback from adjacent colleagues. Building relationships across teams increases exposure to others’ knowledge and experiences, promotes visibility and growth, and creates a shared sense of mission.

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Support career development

Supporting employees’ career development with a focus on equal opportunity is a core element of leadership that promotes fairness and empowers people to control their careers. This matters both in daily work and during key development-related junctures.

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