TLC does not mean what it used to mean. Still, the reality is that these three ingredients determine and define a workplace where people want to work, leadership which people respect and want to follow, not to mention other growth opportunities.

Most people know that when relationships don’t work, little else does. Discipline without a relationship usually results in resentment. Rules without a relationship lead to rebellion. They create the effect where leadership feels more like they are herding cats.

Ironically what matters most in a thriving workforce is what has always counted but got lost along the way. Motivators of a previous era no longer motivate, so TLC takes on a non-negotiable priority. It is about leadership, not management, and while both are required for success, they are very different in expression. Values like DEI, hiring do not take hold when relationships are unsafe.

Reframing the workplace to be like any relationship means that you and I must address the factors that form a healthy relationship, not to mention a thriving one. This forms the very foundation of TLC, — TRUST, LEADERSHIP, and COMMUNICATION.

We all know what others become when we are “king/queen of the castle…” What about a leadership which fights for the bottom of the pile and lifts others up?

• Social safety, only through relationships, is core to achieving psychological safety.
• Communicate, not inform, so thriving relationships result [they determine it, not us]
• Communicate at levels which strengthen relationships.
• Set a foundation, so programs are not just a policy but best practice.
• Understanding into awareness of transforming from management to leadership
• The repercussions of leadership to transformational from transactional.
• Relationships are about character, which is defined by others without conscious effort.
• Translating the search for a guide, mentor, and development into practice [why succession planning often doesn’t work out]
• Appreciation in ways that matter to them, mitigating a toxic workplace through healthy relationships [even when no one says it’s toxic out loud!]