Tools for Managers
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Support career development
Tags Share Supporting people’s career development is a core element of any leadership role. Day-to-day and during key development-related junctures, leaders have opportunities to honor dignity by thinking inclusively about career development and probing management’s practices and decision-making processes. Employees rely on their managers to support their development and goals, recognize their contributions, and trust…
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Strengthen synergies across teams
Tags Share No team operates in a vacuum. Rather, its work relies on synergies, partnerships, and relationships with adjacent colleagues. And the feedback from and advocacy of those partners, especially those who are key stakeholders in your team’s work, can have an impact on the engagement and growth of people on your team. All of…
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Manage team meetings inclusively
Tags Share Relationships across a team and the operational norms teams follow when they meet have a direct effect on dignity-honoring elements like recognition, inclusion, independence, fairness, and understanding. Signals from managers indicate what’s important, whether all voices matter, how recognition is delivered, and how workplace stress is handled. As always, the manager sets the…
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Welcome new team members thoughtfully
Tags Share When new members join the team (whether as new hires or transfers from another part of the organization), you have an immediate opportunity to signal the ways you honor and promote dignity. You will be forming the basis for relationships that will develop and an understanding of what is important and valued in…
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Value team members’ differences
Tags Share Fostering an equitable environment of inclusion and belonging, where people of all identities can flourish and thrive, is at the core of honoring dignity. But many managers and colleagues tend to gravitate toward people who seem the most familiar to them—even in the hiring process. This often leaves those who are perceived as…
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Advance dignity in policy and organizational values
Tags Share Many organizations’ policies, values statements, and codes of conduct cover workplace behavior and can help advance dignity in a structural way. But they don’t exist only on the pages or screens on which they appear. They are given practical life based on how colleagues work with one another, how managers lead teams and…
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Prioritize an effective feedback culture
Tags Share A culture of robust feedback—about team performance, operations, and individual performance, as well as about perceived dignity violations—promotes the dignity elements of fairness, learning, recognition, and acknowledgement. Poor delivery of feedback undermines dignity at work and stands in the way of team and growth, empowerment, and retention. The manager must make clear to…
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Build trust with your team members
Tags Share When colleagues trust each other, they and their organizations benefit. Their work relationships are strong, they are more committed, and they are better able to make a positive contribution. They are more productive at work, have more energy, and are less stressed. They collaborate better, and they stay with their employers longer than…
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Create remote humanity in remote and distributed work
Tags Share No matter the workplace type, dignity must be prioritized. Now that working in a remote environment has become an option—and, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the norm for many—it is crucial to recognize the many ways remote work can challenge employees’ well-being and to seize opportunities to honor their dignity, including…
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Foster a safe and open environment
Tags Share A crucial element of honoring dignity is creating and maintaining an environment where people feel safe—to speak up (including to their manager), give feedback, take risks, offer a different perspective, and raise an actual or perceived dignity violation without fear of being ignored, judged, or punished. The difference between how managers and their…
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