Clarity is vitally important for everyone and as a manager and leader it is vital that all your team understand exactly what their role is and what is expected of them. Without that clarity your team will never know if they are doing what is required or if they are being successful. Of course, it is essential that your team are capable of achieving what is expected of them and that they have the tools to do so.

As a part of my series about how leaders can create a “fantastic work culture”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anthony Sutton.

Anthony Sutton from Staffordshire, United Kingdom is the founder of Cream HR a one stop shop for SME’s to help them get the best “people” support available. He set up Cream HR as he found that businesses were notoriously not good with people management as it’s time consuming, frustrating and doesn’t come naturally to everyone. He wanted to provide the expertise they needed but don’t necessarily possess.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

From a young age I have been interested in business. Initially I wanted to work in the city and was offered a couple of jobs. The culture of those businesses felt so wrong — English Public-School backgrounds, macho, aggressive and with massive egos, that I was completely put off my career choice. I came to realise that I liked people and business and that drove me to work with people in business.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

There are many, but I can recall arriving at the office early one morning to receive a phone call from a national radio station asking me if I was happy to join a live broadcast in about 5 minutes about a complex employment matter of which I had very little knowledge. Of course, I said yes and enjoyed spending the next 15 minutes or so ad libbing live on national radio!

Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are working with a number of interesting clients, all of which have tremendous opportunities for great success. Helping each of them to build a successful, high-performance culture to achieve that success is very exciting.

Ok, let’s jump to the main part of our interview. According to this study cited in Forbes, more than half of the US workforce is unhappy. Why do you think that number is so high?

There are a whole host of reasons and that initial point in the study about most managers being untrained in management methods is stark. For many years many businesses and leaders have thought that management is about control. That’s a recipe for failure, management is about enablement and empowering your people to succeed. Until more organisations accept tha, we will remain stuck in a cycle if demotivated, demoralised employees and delusional managers who think that it’s always work is about money and status.

Based on your experience or research, how do you think an unhappy workforce will impact a) company productivity b) company profitability c) and employee health and wellbeing?

An unhappy workforce significantly (negatively) impacts on all of these areas. An unhappy and unappreciated workforce will not want to improve their performance as there is no incentive to do so, this affects profitability as the workforce will not seek to make performance improvements to drive increased profits. Health and wellbeing are massively and badly impacted in this situation.

Can you share 5 things that managers and executives should be doing to improve their company work culture? Can you give a personal story or example for each?

The first thing that a manager needs to realise upon promotion into that position is that it is no longer about them, it’s about their team. Many people are promoted based on their previous performance and I can relate to that from my own experience early in my career. Being a star performer is great, but once you have been promoted into a management position it is essential to understand that you are no longer the one in the spotlight, you are now responsible for developing and growing your team. From my own experience, I wasn’t given that advice and as a new manager simply expected people to perform as I had done. This was not healthy for anyone, and it took some self-reflection to accept and understand what I needed to do to be a successful and inspirational manager and leader. I hope that I’m reasonably good now!

Clarity is vitally important for everyone and as a manager and leader it is vital that all your team understand exactly what their role is and what is expected of them. Without that clarity your team will never know if they are doing what is required or if they are being successful. Of course, it is essential that your team are capable of achieving what is expected of them and that they have the tools to do so.

Next, I would suggest that managers focus on people’s individual strengths. We all have areas that we are better at than others and by helping your team to focus on what they do best, they have the opportunity to succeed and grow. This is nothing to do with limiting options, it’s about understanding that there is a reason why we’re all better at some things than others and by focussing on areas of strength your team will enjoy what they do and deliver good results consistently. There is often a desire to develop teams to be great at everything and whilst it’s an understandable ambition it can have seriously negative consequences. I recall working for a great and very successful IT Services business and they had a star sales person. Every year the USA parent would go through a very lengthy and boring performance review process and every year this one person would get top scores in everything except two categories and every year the USA parent would demand that next years focus was on those two categories. They were blessed with a strong divisional CEO who asked if they understood why the employee failed on these two areas every year and asked what would happen if they really did focus on those areas — the answers being, they weren’t good at and didn’t like those areas and if they concentrated on them everything else would suffer as a result. Give people the chance to do what they do well, every day.

Next I would choose praise, create a culture where people are genuinely appreciated for the work they do. This is not just about saying thank you, although that’s a good start. It’s about being bothered to specifically thank people for work they have done that has made a positive difference and it doesn’t have to cost you anything. People want to be appreciated and feel valued and if they know that their work is appreciated, they will feel far more engaged. As in the Forbes report, people leave managers not jobs. A manager who creates a culture of praise will enjoy the benefits of loyalty and hard work.

Finally, I would ensure that you show that you genuinely care about your employees. Businesses who do care, perform far better than those who have the badges and awards, but don’t live and breathe that care. Many years ago we worked with a business who had reduced the amount of paid sick leave they gave to their employees. Immediately after the change had taken effect one employee was involved in an horrific car accident, which would require them to be in hospital for many months. The employee was obviously worried about money and paying their bills. The CEO went to see the employee and immediately told them that they would pay their salary while they were in hospital, apart from relief and aiding their recovery, all their friends and colleagues who found out that the company was supporting their employee, understood what a great business this was and that has immediate impact on performance, loyalty and engagement.

It’s very nice to suggest ideas, but it seems like we have to “change the culture regarding work culture”. What can we do as a society to make a broader change in the US workforce’s work culture?

As a society we need realise that possessions and wealth are not the holy grail — learning to value people more and being more understanding and more tolerant would make a massive difference to the world. We’ve become very polarised and quick to judge people without necessarily knowing the full facts. We really need to learn to become more balanced.

How would you describe your leadership or management style? Can you give us a few examples?

Inclusive, open and supportive. Just because I am leader in the business, I don’t think that I am the only one with great ideas. The best ideas come from within the business and I try really hard to ensure that everyone contributes to what we do. All my team know me inside out and they know that they can trust me to be there for them and that I will help them where I can. We recently introduced a four-day week without amending salaries and then increased holiday entitlement. The team works hard and they deserve to have as good a work/life balance that we can provide to enjoy their lives to the full.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ve been lucky to work with some incredible people. Over recent years I’ve worked with a coach who has helped me to become much better and more open when it comes to dealing with my own emotions and health and wellbeing. I have not only become much better at dealing with a whole range of challenges, but I am better at helping other people with theirs too.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

My natural inclination is to help others and I always try and share my knowledge freely to help other people on their journey. I get great satisfaction knowing that I help other people to overcome challenges and obstacles. Outside of that I’ve done things like long bike rides to raise money for charitable causes.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

No regrets — make the most of every day. As you grow older you realise how quickly it all goes. I encourage my friends and loved ones to make the most of every opportunity and to always chase that bug dream — don’t die wondering!

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

We need to change the role and place of money and wealth in our society and in the world. It’s an artificial construct and it would be great to deconstruct or at least reconstruct it.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you continued success!