Presence.

One of my favorite teachings from my Organizational Psychology class last semester was a lecture on the Hawthorne Effect. This is a very similar idea to, "When the cat's away, the mice will play." While we often see this as a negative connotation in relationship to work - why don't more people leverage it?

When I worked at The Home Depot, our store manager, Matt Holmes, was (and still is) an incredible example in my experience of a leader people love to follow. He made a positive lasting impact on my life direction, and I would be certain that could be said for many others. A kind, caring, goal oriented individual with an unmatched amount of external confidence. To put it into perspective, when he would do his store walks with the District Manager (his boss), if you didn't know who was in charge, you would surely put money on Matt being the higher up. The way in which he presented himself was something I have yet to see similarly elsewhere. There is no doubt in my mind that Matt is a leader that people love to follow. I saw it first hand on a daily basis. What does that have to do with presence though?

When Matt was around, people worked twice as hard. Not because they were afraid he would say something, but because they wanted to do a good thing in his favor. After all, leadership comes with responsibility for more than self, and people know it. They were holding him responsible just as much they were themselves.

I think we can all agree that in most places of employment, engagement and efficiency are UP when the supervisor/manager/leader is around and DOWN when they aren't. This can be frustrating at times no doubt. Sometimes you just want to get away from work. We all do. But the great part about this is that even on a day when you don't feel like you have the energy to be a great encourager, motivator, inspire-er (no that's not a real word), your presence alone is still going to be motivation for the team. Especially if you're a leader people love to follow.

So how can leaders leverage this known idea that people do less when the leader isn't around? Show up. When you're a leader people love to follow, your presence alone is a motivation. That's the Hawthorne Effect, the idea that people being watched tend to work harder, so use it. (Don't abuse it though) If they know you're around, they are going to be motivated to do more and be more. That's the great part about the saying, "When the cat's away, the mice will play." There is no doubt leadership can be difficult, but even when it gets hard, just show up.