The Human-Centred Manager: Leading with Fairness and Growth

Following a human-centred leadership today feels like so much more than just overseeing tasks. You're often the first person your team turns to with their people issues, and that can feel like a big responsibility, especially if you don't have an HR expert right there to chat with. This guide is crafted to make that easier, helping you navigate situations with grace and fairness. Our purpose is to empower you to safeguard yourself and your organisation while you design and nurture a positive and inclusive team environment for everyone, one that embraces everyone's true potential.

Think of it as building a strong, supportive foundation for your team – genuine leaders are always ready. While legal frameworks cover important aspects like age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, and sex under The Equality Act 2010, you also gently guide your team through everyday challenges like bullying and harassment. But even beyond legal protections, great managers ensure every individual feels welcomed, valued, and fully supported, no matter their unique background or circumstances.

Cultivating an Inclusive Management Approach: Your Guiding Principles

At the heart of human-centred leadership lies empathy. A crucial part of being wonderfully fair is understanding cognitive heuristics and being aware of our own psychological biases. Our brilliant brains, as humans, are designed to save energy, and sometimes they do this by taking clever shortcuts, like grouping people and making quick judgments or generalisations. This intuitive thinking process is sometimes referred to as unconscious bias in some workplace settings. However, people's qualities are far more unique, diverse, and complex than these simple labels suggest.

Therefore, treating people equally does not mean treating everyone the same way. A truly nurturing leadership dynamic means providing everyone the same opportunities at work and being intentional, honest, and empathetic in every interaction. Some individuals may need more support than others to embrace those opportunities fully, and that is perfectly okay. 

Always treat people with a sense of respect and good intention, even when they cause frustration or anger. If you find yourself feeling that surge of anger, it's a gentle signal to pause and explore the whole picture before putting someone on a pedestal or having a difficult conversation. Rushing into decisions when misconduct is suspected can often lead to complications.

Managers should proactively cultivate an organisational culture where employees feel comfortable raising issues. There needs to be a balance between emotional safety and productivity. This is achieved through consistent engagement, including informal chats and "drop-in" discussions, especially vital in remote work environments. 

Providing meaningful developmental opportunities, such as challenging assignments, should be approached thoughtfully to both enhance individual skills and contribute to our shared organisational success. Human-centred leadership emphasises thoughtful delegation, which truly blossoms into significant medium to long-term benefits for organisations.

At the core of effective management are self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Always treat your employees as if you’re building leaders, not followers.

Understanding your feelings and how they drive your actions is crucial for human-centred leadership. If you genuinely want to inspire someone, your ultimate focus should be yourself. It always starts with us to lead by example, demonstrating the behaviours and environment we want to see in our business, guided by the core values of our company. Developing strong communication skills and active listening is essential. When you truly listen, you create an environment where staff feel able to bring their issues to you, which is key for understanding their needs and building precious trust. This authentic approach, combined with understanding your leadership style, allows you to be a genuinely human yet firm and fair manager whom your staff will respect and learn from. This growth, however, requires time, consistent support, coaching, and a commitment to continuous learning as you evolve as a leader. 

Having a mentor, a coach, and engaging in regular Leadership training courses in London are particularly important. These practices help us to continuously become aware of our blind spots, acknowledge our strengths, and identify any areas for improvement, setting the right tone of learning and a growth mindset for ourselves and our teams.

Managing Performance and Keeping Records: Your Essential Toolkit

Having a clear, structured plan for performance management that allows no ambiguity is highly important in human-centred leadership. Managers often feel they lack the time for this, but it is critical. Without a structured approach, you become vulnerable to claims of discrimination if you discipline someone for poor performance. For example, if someone claims, "You're picking on me!" you may have no defence because you haven't been consistently discussing performance with your entire team.

This is where your Performance Log comes in – it can be a digital document, an app, or a simple spreadsheet. Consistent written entries in this log can be admissible evidence in an employment tribunal. This strategic tool is for your daily operational notes and a powerful way to quickly verify facts if an accusation arises (which can have a high impact when solving future problems).

Here are a few relevant pieces of information to note:

• Punctuality and Deadlines: Jot down when someone is late for work, meetings, or task deadlines. While not necessarily for immediate action, these records build a clear picture of performance over time. Keep these notes private or password-protected, just in case someone needs to look at your notebook.

• Performance Discussions: Make a note every time you have a meeting with someone about their performance or behaviour, good or bad. Summarise what you discussed and the outcome too. This creates a written record of exactly when and what happened, which is invaluable if you need to gently address the issue again. Dates are also handy for quickly tracing emails for writing evidence, too.

• Behavioural Observations and Interventions: If you observe something that needs a little adjustment, it's good practice to address it right away – "nip it in the bud". Then, immediately write down precisely what you saw and what you did about it. This is excellent management practice and will be a huge help if someone claims you're being a bully or "picking on them". It also helps you show that you've consistently handled similar situations with others.

The Power of Regular Team Meetings and One-to-Ones

Beyond individual records, the cornerstone of human-centred leadership, strong team performance, and a healthy work environment lies in the thoughtful use of team meetings and consistent one-to-ones.

Team Meetings: These are not merely for updates; they are vital for fostering beautiful collaboration, building team cohesion, and ensuring everyone feels informed and heard. For team meetings to be effective, they need to be:

• Regularly Run: Consistency establishes routine and expectation, ensuring everyone knows when and where to connect.
• Properly Facilitated: This requires skills like setting clear agendas, managing time effectively, encouraging participation from all members (even quieter ones), constructively managing conflict, and summarising actions and responsibilities. Good facilitation ensures meetings stay focused and achieve objectives, making everyone feel their valuable time is well spent.

Regular One-to-Ones (121s): These are perhaps the most critical tool for individual employee development and support. They are dedicated, private conversations between a manager and an individual team member. Their importance stems from several key reasons:

• Individualised Support: They provide a safe, nurturing space for employees to discuss challenges, aspirations, and performance in a confidential setting.
• Performance Nurturing: It's an opportunity for continuous, direct feedback, both positive and constructive, allowing for performance issues to be addressed early and successes to be celebrated privately.
• Career Development: Managers can lovingly discuss career goals, identify training needs, and help employees plan their professional growth.
• Building Trust: Consistent, positive one-to-ones build a strong manager-employee relationship based on trust and mutual respect.

One quick, golden rule: ALWAYS praise in public and provide feedback in private. Even if your feedback is justified, public correction can lead to embarrassment that is rarely forgiven and can significantly damage the manager-employee relationship.

Your Quick Manager's Checklist:

DOs:

• Be Self-Aware: Understand your own beautiful emotions and how you come across.
• Practice Emotional Intelligence: Respond thoughtfully, not reactively.
• Be Aware of Your Biases: Understand how cognitive shortcuts might influence your perceptions.
• Listen actively: Truly hear your team out with care; spend precious time with them.
• Be fair, not identical: Give everyone the same opportunities, even if some need extra help.
• Control your reactions: Pause before acting when you're angry.
• Encourage open communication: Make your team feel safe to talk to you about their experiences.
• Share opportunities: Let everyone grow and learn.
• Document everything: Use a Performance Log for notes on performance and behaviour.
• Run regular, well-facilitated team meetings: Make them productive and inclusive.
• Prioritise consistent one-to-ones: Build individual relationships and support growth.
• Praise in public: Celebrate successes where everyone can see.
• Provide feedback privately: Correct behaviour in a one-on-one setting.
• Lead by Example: Show your core values and authenticity in everything you do.
• Seek Mentorship and Training: Actively engage with mentors, coaches, and regular training to understand your blind spots and grow.

DON'Ts:

• Rush into judgments: Get the full picture before taking action.
• Treat everyone the same way: Remember individual support needs.
• Ignore your feelings: Use anger as a signal to step back, not to lash out.
• Forget your records: Not having notes can leave you vulnerable.
• Publicly criticise: It damages trust and precious relationships.
• Skip meetings or one-to-ones: Consistency is key for team health.
• Let meetings wander: Facilitate to keep them focused and productive.

Remember, becoming a manager who follows human-centred leadership means realising you are both human and effective takes time and consistent effort. Good training, ongoing development, and supportive coaching are essential to truly embed these learnings and to grow continuously as a leader.