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7 min.

Leadership | Leadership culture

What am I worth - what are you worth? The value of people in companies.

From Sabine Walter

In order to be effective in teams and companies to work together trustingly at eye levelanswering the question about the value of individual people has a key function: "Do I feel like an equal member of a team?" and "To what extent do I see all other colleagues as equals?". In my work with teams and organisations, I see time and again that the principle of equality is questioned and the value of the respective members is linked to the salary they receive or the measurable value they bring to the company. This prompted me to take a closer look at the topic in this article.

Equivalence in companies

What is a human being worth?

What is a human being worth? How do you measure their value? Or is every human being worth the same just by virtue of the fact that he or she is a human being. These questions have preoccupied humanity for millennia. And in the history of humanity, despite the guiding principle "before God all are equal", equality has been continuously negated:

  • Believers are worth more than unbelievers
  • Men are worth more than women
  • Certain ethnic groups are worth more than others
  • People who work are worth more than people who don't

I could go on with the list for a long time. But that is not my point. I want to deliberately focus on companies and their teams and ask one question: Where does this lead us if we measure the value of team members differently?

Where does it lead if we measure the value of team members differently?

Let us approach this question by means of an example:

The team we are looking at has eight members, two of whom are managers. Five of the eight members have studied, three have "merely" completed training. These three do recurring tasks, such as order entry, telephone service, posting invoices and receipts. Another colleague looks after logistics, one colleague looks after marketing, another looks after HR and finance, and the two managers look after sales and the strategic development of the company.

Within the framework of a stocktaking of the leadership culture, we discuss the question of the value of the individuals. The answers are mixed: Some are of the opinion, every team member is equalregardless of the role they have and the tasks they perform. Others emphasise that the people who make a measurable contribution to the value of the company are worth more. There are differences in value. "After all, not everyone is paid the same either." After a short discussion, it is agreed that while all people in the team deserve the same respect, those who bring in turnover and results are worth more. After all, you want to grow. Financial ratios as a measure of human / personal value.

Where does this lead?

If the value of individual members is not decoupled from role, responsibility and measurable value contribution (turnover, result), the self-worth of individual members will be hurt. Injured self-worth has various effects that directly and indirectly damage the company's value:

Firstly, self-confidence and relationship confidence decrease.

Trusting oneself unreservedly and thus trusting one's own abilities, talents and strengths even when things don't work out one hundred percent right away is a key value for any development. Self-confidence and self-worth are interconnected. Low self-esteem often results in low self-confidence. Low or declining self-confidence causes damage to self-worth in the long run.

Low self-confidence, as Stephen M.R. Covey describes in his book "Speed through Confidence", has a direct impact on lower relational confidence, i.e. the ability to trust others and also to take a leap of faith. This affects, among other things, the ability to hand over tasks and allow the path to the goal to be shaped freely. It can lead to a need for control and micromanagement.

Relationship trust also has a direct influence on emotional security in organisations.

Second: Emotional security decreases, development is hindered

Growth and development happen outside one's comfort zone. This requires courage. We are courageous when we have a strong sense of self-confidence or feel emotionally safe in a group. As research has shown, for example, through the Project Aristotle of Alphabet shows, is "Psychological Safety", i.e. a primal trust in the group, the most important Prerequisite for the performance strength of a team. This basic trust in the groupThis is the feeling that each individual can show himself or herself as he or she is, without this leading to a loss of belonging, esteem or security, is also reflected in the fact that individuals take full responsibility for the big picture and get involved - whether within or outside their own area of responsibility.

A weakly developed emotional security leads directly to the fact that problems are no longer addressed openly, one's own - especially controversial - opinions are not expressed, people are no longer prepared to argue for the best solution, to endure conflicts, to carry them out and to solve them.

Without psychological security, there is no authenticity, no culture of learning and innovation. Instead, fear, withdrawal and inner resignation.

Fourthly: Internal (and external) dismissal causes damage to competitiveness

A strong self-esteem not only influences one's self-confidence but also, and above all, one's self-efficacy. The fear of leaving one's comfort zone automatically limits one's radius of action and personal willingness to take risks. The process of inner resignation begins. The quality of work decreases, mistakes may be covered up, decisions are not made, things are no longer developed. Entrepreneurial thinking and acting rapidly decreases, silo thinking increases. Solution-oriented thinking gives way to problem focus and blame. The team climate deteriorates, communication decreases.

Self-organisation of teams and agile working become impossible. Value creation and innovation decrease, costs for errors, conflict, illness and fluctuation increase. The competitiveness of companies is damaged.

Fifth: Attractiveness as an employer decreases

Companies are desperately looking for people who are passionate about the common goal, who want to help shape it and who contribute their skills and talents to achieve it.

A company that does not decouple the principle of equality, i.e. the value of a person from his or her performance, will lose its attractiveness for employees in the long run. In the age of digitalisation, however, it is precisely the resource of talented people who think and act entrepreneurially and take responsibility for themselves and the team that is becoming increasingly decisive.

Therefore, it is elementary to feel and live equality.

Conclusion

Equality is a success factor for companies

In addition to the ethical component, respecting and promoting the principle of equality in teams and companies has a direct and indirect influence on the value of the company.. People who do not (cannot) live the principle of equality have a low self-worth. In order to survive, they either need their own elevation coupled with performance and / or status. Or they try to "make themselves invisible" and accept the elevation of others. Both behaviours are legitimate survival strategies, but they counteract the emergence of high-performance teams and thus sustainable success, including economic success.

The people who place their own value above that of others will not be able to give the benefit of the doubt, will find it difficult to accept others' ideas, will not really hand over responsibility and will hinder development and growth.

Therefore: All people in a company, from the cleaner to the boss, are of equal value - no matter what role they have, what responsibility they bear, what training they have received or what tasks they perform. It is the task of the managers to exemplify this equality and to anchor it in the organisation.

To promote this equality, the key element of a sustainable leadership culture is the Strengthening the self-confidence of oneself and strengthening the self-confidence of others. There are many instruments for this. Use them!

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