Effective Leadership reduces sick leave. At least that’s what I’ve long believed based on client results.
For example, several years ago I undertook a project with AAPT in Australia. Over a period of 11 months, the first and second-level managers in one division of the company consistently applied Effective Leadership practices. This resulted in two key outcomes; a 411% increase in sales, along with a 34% reduction in sick leave – down from 572 days to 376 lost days per month.
Surprisingly, much of this reduction in sick leave occurred over the winter months. This is a time of the year when you would expect the amount of sick leave taken to actually increase. At the time I put this improvement down to higher levels of employee motivation, and stronger positive relationships between managers and their staff.
It turns out I was right. A recently released Swedish study has confirmed that the workplace relationship between an employee and their immediate manager can be the trigger for employees to take sick leave. In fact, a trigger effect was found for exposure to problems in the relationship with a superior during any of the previous two workdays before the first sick-leave day.
The researchers also discovered trigger effects from problems in relationships with colleagues, and from anticipating a stressful work situation on the first sick-leave day. About 12% of work-related psychosocial events mentioned involved conflict with colleagues. However a whopping 70% of such events involved problems in the relationship with a superior (including insufficient appreciation, conflict, being disregarded, or being criticized).
It is the mission of all people managers to bring out the best in their employees. That means understanding, and being skilled in, a range of techniques and skills to influence employee motivation and performance. In the end, leadership is about relationships. The way we choose to relate to, and interact with, our people determines their level of motivation and performance.
It’s becoming clear that people managers who are skilled in Effective Leadership benefit both their organizations and their employees. Just considering sick leave alone, they have the ability to reduce costs while lifting employee motivation and well-being, along with overall team performance.