Supportive Leadership Styles

Workplace wellbeing has been lying to you. They told you it starts with: Certificates and Champions Motivational workshops Gym passes and exercise classes Funky breakout spaces A trendily named EAP The latest tech gadget Fruit platters and vegan options It’s easy to sell this. External solutions, adding that wellbeing veneer. Easy to comms, harder to integrate strategically. But too many companies are falling into the “tick box trap”. And two years on from initially posting this, with spend increasing, lots of good intention, passionate people alongside increasing stress, burnout and expectations, wellbeing washing is rife. In my opinion, workplace wellbeing starts with: Realistic workloads Clarity of role, responsibilities and boundaries Feeling valued and appreciated Cultivation of psychological safety and belonging Lived vision, values and purpose Capable leadership and management Concise and comprehensible communication Fair wages and safe environments Wellbeing is an outcome, never in isolation. Individual interventions can be effective, but we all have different drivers and exist with in an ecosystem. It’s time we stopped trying to fix people, and started by fixing work. Work design, culture and climate, systems and processes. Human sustainability is our future, and we aren’t going to achieve that by pulling an increasing amount of people out of the river. Maybe it’s time to fix the bridges and river banks. It’s why I’ve moved upstream towards allyship and the skills that foster collaboration. Because connection, collectivism and compassion are foundational to the opportunity to be well. And I’m hopeful, because it seems like we are finally having this conversation as an industry. What do you see as the future of wellbeing?

Your Safety Manager is not your bodyguard. And if you are a Safety Manager, stop trying to be one. I see too many organisations falling into the trap of dependency. Something goes wrong? Call safety. Need a risk assessment? Call safety. Audit coming up? Call safety. This isn't safety leadership. It is a bottleneck. When operations delegates the “thinking” to the safety department, you detach the risk from the work. That is when people get hurt. The best H&S professionals I know don't hoard responsibility. They distribute it. - To the leaders: Stop hiring safety people to “do” safety. Hire them to design the culture that makes safety inevitable. - To the safety managers: Your value isn't measured by how many fires you put out. It's measured by how many supervisors you’ve coached to hold the hose. Don't be the safety net. Be the architect. The goal isn't to catch every ball, but build a team that stops dropping them. #SafetyLeadership #RiskOwnership #HSE

The most frustrating moment in my work is watching a brilliant leader lose their team not because they don’t care, but because they refuse to adapt. “I’ve always led this way.” “I just expect people to step up.” - leaders tell me and they mean well. But people aren’t machines. You can’t plug the same leadership approach into every person and expect power to flow. Just like traveling between countries, you need different adapters. And in leadership, those adapters are built on empathy, flexibility, and science-backed awareness of human behavior. 🔍 In theory, this is what Situational Leadership captures. Introduced by Hersey & Blanchard in 1969 and validated by decades of follow-up research, it showed that matching leadership behavior to the employee's needs leads to better motivation, learning, and performance. But here’s the nuance many miss: ❌ It’s not just about toggling between “directive” and “supportive.” ✅ It’s about building the diagnostic capacity to read people emotionally, contextually, and developmentally. And when combined with psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999), this adaptive leadership creates the conditions where people feel safe to contribute, challenge, and learn. In practice, I see this when leaders learn to carry the right “adapter”: 🔌 Structure: when someone is overwhelmed and needs clarity 🔌 Empathy: when someone is disengaged but no one has asked why 🔌 Challenge: when someone is ready for more but hasn’t been stretched 🔌 Listening: when someone has a voice but not yet a safe space 🔌 Autonomy: when someone is thriving and needs room to fly And in the end, it’s not the "best' leadership style that builds best teams. It’s the most responsive one. And being responsive also means being inclusive. P.S. What “adapter” do you find yourself using most as a leader? --------------------------------- 👋 New here? Welcome! I'm Susanna. I help organizations with high-performing, inclusive leadership and culture by fostering psychological safety.

Leaders who avoid hard feedback aren’t protecting their people, they are setting them up to fail. Feedback is one of the most powerful tools we have in leadership but it’s also one of the most misused. Because leaders confuse compassion with avoidance, softening the truth until it loses all usefulness, or withholding it altogether under the guise of kindness. Compassionate feedback is about caring enough to be honest, in a way that allows other people to hear it. At APS Intelligence, we use a framework for compassionate feedback, designed to ensure that even difficult messages are delivered with clarity and respect: 1. Frame the feedback - Start by recognising effort and value to create psychological safety and remind people their work is seen and appreciated. 2. Ask permission - Feedback lands better when people feel like they have agency. Asking “Can I talk to you about something I’ve noticed?” is, as Dr. Shelby Hill says, a gentle knock on the door of someone’s psyche instead of barging in. 3. Be precise and objective - Describe what you’ve observed, not your interpretation of it. Feedback should focus on behaviour, not character. 4. Explain the impact - Share how the behaviour affects others or the work. Clarity about consequences builds accountability without blame. 5. Stay curious and open - Avoid assumptions. Ask questions that invite dialogue and understanding, not defence. 6. Collaborate on next steps - Offer support, not ultimatums. Feedback should be a shared problem to solve instead of a burden to bear. 7. End with perspective - Reaffirm their strengths and remind them that one issue does not define their value. Compassionate feedback allows honesty and humanity to coexist. It ensures that when people walk away, they feel respected, even if the message was hard to hear. This is a framework we use often at APS Intelligence. You can book a tailored workshop for your people managers or leadership cohorts to explore this further.

9 ways to leverage cross functional collaboration for better decisions in software development: Start with a clear vision: Ensure everyone understands the project’s goals. → This keeps all functions aligned. Create interdisciplinary teams: Mix developers, security experts, and business analysts. → Different perspectives lead to better decisions. Regular check-ins: Schedule frequent meetings for updates. → Keeps everyone on the same page. Foster open communication: Encourage team members to share ideas freely. → Builds trust and innovation. Use collaborative tools: Implement platforms like Slack or Trello. → Simplifies communication and task tracking. Define roles clearly: Ensure everyone knows their responsibilities. → Reduces confusion and overlap. Encourage knowledge sharing: Host sessions where team members teach each other. → Enhances skills across the board. Set common goals: Align individual tasks with the team’s objectives. → Promotes unity and focus. Celebrate successes together: Acknowledge and reward collaborative efforts. → Boosts morale and motivation. Cross functional collaboration doesn’t just happen. It requires deliberate effort and strategy. But the payoff? Better decisions, faster execution, and a more cohesive team. How do you foster collaboration in your projects? Let’s discuss!

I was 3 weeks away from being fired. Almost a decade ago, I started a new role and was struggling badly. I was making mistakes, missing deadlines, and felt completely overwhelmed trying to prove myself. I expected my manager to call me in for a performance review. I had prepared for a lecture about everything I was doing wrong. Instead, she knocked on my door one afternoon and said: "How are you doing? Really doing?" I was caught off guard. No one had asked me that question since I started. What followed was a 20-minute conversation that changed my entire career trajectory. I opened up about feeling lost, the pressure I was putting on myself, and my fear of failing in this new role. She didn't give me a to-do list that day. She just listened, acknowledged my struggles, and said: "You're not failing. You're learning. And we're going to figure this out together." That conversation completely shifted my mindset and performance. Great leaders know the difference between someone who needs guidance and someone who needs support. Here's how to read the room: 1. Pause before you preach. ↳ Ask yourself: Are they struggling with skills or struggling with confidence? 2. Listen for the real problem. ↳ Sometimes "I don't know how" really means "I'm afraid to fail." 3. Emotional support first, instruction second. ↳ A person who feels heard is ready to learn. A person who feels judged will shut down. 4. Create psychological safety. ↳ People perform better when they feel supported, not scrutinized. 5. Sometimes presence is more powerful than advice. ↳ Being there matters more than being right. The best managers I've known understood this instinctively. Because leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking the right questions. ♻️ Repost if you believe in leading with empathy first. 🔔 Follow Sunmoluwa Ajala for more.

Most feedback fails for a simple reason. It is delivered to correct behavior, not to develop people. High achievers already carry consequences. They want to contribute. They want to improve. What they need from leadership is not sharper critique. It is better guidance. Strong feedback starts before anything goes wrong. Catch people doing things right. Name the specific behavior. Explain why it matters. Say what you respect about it. Trust is built long before correction is needed. Then widen the lens. Learn what people hope for. Not just the next role. Their personal goals. Their longer arc. When someone knows you care about where they are heading, feedback feels supportive, not evaluative. Great leaders teach, not lecture. They frame feedback as learning, not judgment. They help people recognize patterns, not just fix errors. Confidence grows when people feel genuinely seen. Not as output. As human beings. Deep listening often does more than formal reviews could. Feedback lands differently depending on how it is received. Ask how someone prefers to hear it. Deliver it in a way that protects dignity and forward motion. Context matters. Remind people they are part of something larger. Their effort connects to others. Their growth strengthens the whole. Purpose centers people when feedback stretches them. The best leaders use feedback as a bridge. Between where someone stands and who they are becoming. That is how you help people grow. And higher performance follows as confidence replaces compliance. ♻️ Repost to normalize feedback that helps people grow stronger, not smaller. 🔔 Follow Ronnie Kinsey for daily strategies on better choices, leading well, and success. 🧠 I write a weekly newsletter with more actionable, relatable tips and tools. Join us here, Free: https://lnkd.in/dDSGKM9w

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺? There was a phase where I thought “good feedback” means being direct. So I was direct. And slowly, I started noticing something painful. People were doing the work. But they were shrinking.  • They stopped sharing drafts early.  • Stopped asking questions.  • Stopped taking bold ownership. Not because they were weak. Because feedback started feeling like a verdict, not guidance. That’s when I learned something as a founder and as a leader: 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗲. So I changed how I speak. Here’s the structure I use now: 1. Name the intention first “I’m saying this because I want you to grow here.” 2. Talk about the behavior, not the personality Not “you’re careless”, But “these details were missed.” 3. Make the impact clear “This affects trust, timelines, and how the team relies on you.” 4. Ask for context before judgment “What made this hard?” Honestly, Sometimes it’s overload. Sometimes it’s unclear expectations. 5. Set the next standard in a simple, repeatable way “Next time, use this 2 minute checklist. And share the draft earlier.” 6. End with belief “I’m telling you this because I trust you can handle it.” 𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿, 𝗜 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴. Feedback is not a punishment. It’s a leadership tool to build people who stay confident while getting better. #Leadership #TeamCulture #Management #Founders #PeopleFirst

Kindness in leadership isn't just about being nice. It's about unlocking potential. I've learned that many workplaces underestimate their people, leading to a culture of fear and dependency. But when given space and support, amazing things happen. It starts with creating a relaxed, open environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing, even if their ideas are a little rough around the edges. You have to recognize the hidden value in each individual, even when it's not immediately obvious. Sometimes, I see someone struggling and think, "Why haven't you done this?" But I remind myself it's often the environment holding them back, not a lack of ability. That's why I try to be kind, patient, and genuinely interested in my team's input. Even if an idea isn't perfect, I look for the spark of brilliance within it. Kindness isn't about being a pushover; it's about recognizing the humanity in everyone. It’s about creating a workplace where people feel safe to learn, grow, and contribute their best. Remember, the more we invest in our people, the more they'll invest in us.

Imagine if leaders had an instrument so powerful that it could transform how teams communicate, build trust, and grow - not through authority, but through honesty and care. That’s what Radical Candor feels like to me. It’s not just another leadership framework, it’s a mindset shift. True leadership isn’t about titles or control. It’s about creating a space where people feel seen, supported, and encouraged to grow. Feedback, when done right, is both a challenge and a gift. It’s caring personally while challenging directly - and that balance changes everything. When I started applying this, I began each conversation with one question in mind: “How can I help this person improve and feel valued at the same time?” And I realized - praise is one of the most underestimated leadership tools. Not the generic “good job,” but the thoughtful kind that highlights something specific: when someone takes initiative, finds a creative solution, or handles a difficult client with grace. Calling out these moments immediately and in detail builds confidence and makes people more open to constructive feedback later. This week, during our Radical Candor training, our team reflected on how we can bring this to life more consistently: blending honesty with empathy, creating an environment where feedback isn’t feared but welcomed, where growth feels shared, not demanded.