Below is a brief summary of the content in the video. Please take a moment to review it before moving on to the questions. If you are going through this with a group, consider reading it aloud together.

The Crazy Cycle

Have you seen the Crazy Cycle in your workplace? Have you actually taken a spin on it yourself?

The Crazy Cycle stems from the need for managers and employees to feel respect and personal care. When the relationship between managers and employees is unhealthy, often it’s because these two important qualities are missing.

Managers need to feel respected by the people they lead. Employees need to know that those in leadership care about them. When managers make decisions that fail to benefit their workers, employees feel undervalued and lose respect for their bosses. And when leadership feels disrespected, they aren’t motivated to care for their employees. Neither party gets what they want, so they react in negative ways. And the quality of the work environment spirals downward as both managers and employees continue their spin on the Crazy Cycle.

Can You Relate?

For example, Jan (the employee) asks Peyton (her manager) for more money when working overtime. Peyton says, “Jan, you should be grateful for all that you have. Frankly, there are others who would love to have your job. You don’t have to stay here, you know.” Understandably, that comment causes Jan to feel that Peyton doesn’t really care about her. She responds, “I have worked long and hard for you. This upsets me. This feels unfair and uncaring.” This ignites the Crazy Cycle: Jan doesn’t believe Peyton cares and Peyton feels Jan’s disrespect.

Peyton is a loving and honorable person but appeared uncaring to Jan, his employee, as was also the case for the real-life manager who once shared with Emerson that many of his female employees were quitting due to their belief that he did not care about them. He had made it clear to them beforehand that their personal concerns were to be left at the front door. This communicated to them that he did not care about their personal lives and concerns, which led many to resign and accuse him of not caring, which felt disrespectful to him. Hence, the Crazy Cycle.

Bottom Line

‍Employees need to feel that management cares. So what can managers do to express that care?

3 Things Managers Can Implement Immediately

Decode: Ask yourself, “Is my employee appearing disrespectful because earlier I appeared uncaring? Are we on the Crazy Cycle because I started it?”

But it doesn’t stop with just asking and answering this question. The manager can greatly ease the tension between him or herself and the employee(s) by humbly apologizing for coming across in an uncaring way.

Demonstrate: Ask yourself, “Do I demonstrate an attitude of caring even when I have to make tough decisions?”

You do not have to subscribe to the false idea that you must demonstrate an uncaring attitude to make sure employees are motivated to be respectful and dutiful. If you demonstrate an uncaring attitude, you will not motivate employees to respect you. You can and should always demonstrate that you care for your employees, no matter the tough decisions being made for the business.

Deposit: Ask yourself, “Am I making deposits of care so that when I make a withdrawal that feels uncaring (i.e., making a tough decision), the employees give me the benefit of the doubt?”

If you are regularly making “deposits of care” to your employees during the day-to-day operations of the business (i.e., listening to their concerns, or if possible, allowing them to work from home if they have a sick child), you will greatly increase the chances that when a tough or unpopular decision is made, your employees who have received your deposits of care will respect your decision and move forward with what is necessary.