Genuinely Care About the Team (Safety Is Just the Beginning)

Care is not a buzzword. It’s a behavior. And it is one of the most misunderstood—and underestimated—leadership responsibilities.

Creating a safe workplace is the baseline. It is expected. It is non-negotiable. Great leaders go much further.

They care about their people as whole human beings—not just as labor, headcount, or “resources.” One phrase I’ve used throughout my career captures this distinction: “manage resources; lead people.”

And when people feel genuinely cared for, they don’t just comply. They commit.  It is this commitment that drives performance when conditions are hard, when pressure is high, and when shortcuts are tempting.

People will never care more about our companies than they believe we care about them—and their families.

Safety: The Starting Point, Not the Finish Line

My leadership foundation was shaped in the U.S. Army and later in the oil & gas, petrochemical, and utilities industries—environments where safety is not optional.

In the best organizations:

• Safety is proactive, not reactive

• Behavior-based programs are embedded

• Leaders model the standards they expect

• Everyone understands the standard—not the goal: everyone goes home, every day

This is not about posters, slogans, or lagging indicators. It’s about discipline, ownership, and respect for human life.

In these industries, safety is the minimum acceptable standard of care.

If safety is the starting line, leadership doesn’t stop there.

A Lesson from the Military: Leaders Build Teams They Inherit

In the military, as young platoon leaders, we don’t get to “hire” our teams. We inherit an existing organization.

The Army assigns us a platoon—and that platoon shows up with its full mix of strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and history. Every platoon, at the moment of assignment, essentially begins equal.

The same is true at every level: platoons, companies, battalions, brigades, divisions etc.,

Leaders don’t get to choose their teams. They are given a team—and then held accountable for the performance of that organization.

What separates high-performing units from struggling ones is not the people they inherit. It’s the leadership they provide.

The best leaders take what they’re given and build:

• Trust

• Discipline

• Standards

• Pride

• Commitment

They do it through leadership—and through genuine care for their people.

This principle translates directly to business.

Leaders who blame results on “the team they inherited” miss the point. Organizations don’t become great because of perfect starting conditions. They become great because leaders invest in people, care about them, and build belief.

Leadership and caring are inseparable at every level.

Caring Is Bigger Than Safety Programs

True care extends beyond PPE, procedures, and toolbox talks. It includes:

• Physical health

• Mental health

• Family well-being

• Personal dignity

• Respect under pressure

I have often told my teams—explicitly and repeatedly:

Your health and your family come before work. If something serious is happening at home, go take care of it.

Some people hear that and think it sounds soft. It isn’t.

It’s practical leadership grounded in reality.

Because here’s the truth leaders sometimes avoid:

Employees will not invest emotionally in organizations that treat them as expendable, interchangeable commodities.

When people believe they are genuinely valued:

• They engage more deeply

• They bring discretionary effort

• They speak up sooner

• They protect the business—they do the right thing—when no one is watching

If you want invested employees—be invested in them.

Care Builds Discipline, Not Weakness

This idea that caring leadership undermines discipline is not new—and it has always been wrong.

Lieutenant General John M. Schofield captured this perfectly in 1879:

The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment…He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them regard for himself…

Care and accountability are not opposites. They reinforce each other.

Caring for your team means expecting great performance—and providing the conditions to achieve it.

Caring means ensuring the team has:

• Clear values, vision, and strategy

• The right people, processes, and tools

• Consistent accountability to high standards

People accept high standards when those standards come from respect—not control—and when everyone is held to them consistently.

Caring Includes Meaningful, Ongoing Feedback

Most companies have some form of an annual performance review. Too often, they are unhelpful at best—and demotivating at worst.

There are many reasons for this, but the responsibility is clear: feedback is a leadership obligation.

More importantly…annually?

We work together every day. We have wins and losses, successes and failures—every day. That is when feedback matters most.

Whether it’s:

• Recognition

• A course correction

• Coaching

• Or a hard conversation

Feedback is most valuable when the experience is fresh.

Time dulls clarity. Memory softens edges. Accuracy suffers.

Imagine a professional sports team waiting until the end of the season to coach players on what they could have done better. It sounds ridiculous.

Yet too many organizations operate exactly that way.

Caring Means Public Praise and Private Coaching

I once worked with a P&L “Boss”—and I use that word intentionally—who believed in belittling people publicly to drive performance.

• “You’re behind.”

• “You missed your targets.”

• “You failed your objectives.”

He believed embarrassment produced results.

It didn’t.

Leaders praise publicly. They coach and counsel privately.

That distinction alone separates leadership from authority. 

His organization suffered from high turnover, poor engagement, and underwhelming growth.

Final Thought: The No @$$hole Rule

The No @$$hole Rule Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert I. Sutton, a Stanford Professor is a terrific little treatise on the impact of bullies in the workplace.  It is a worthwhile read by a guy who knows a thing or two about organizational psychology. 

He uses the term @$$hole to be provocative, but it is effective and appropriate. He uses the term to refer to people whose hostile behavior can be expressed both physically and mentally.  It may be verbal or non-verbal, and frequently leaves coworkers angry, afraid, and, not infrequently, humiliated. 

The book is definitely worth a read, but I’ll share my super abbreviated summary.  @$$holes are like malignant cancer.  The wreak havoc on those around them – and like cancer – the damage has likely started before anybody realizes it.  Like cancer, @$$holes should be dealt with immediately once they are discovered.  They need to be excised.  Organizations can recover from the @$$holes – but the longer they are present – the more damage they can do. 

If you care about your team, care about your business – I highly encourage you to adopt the “No @$$hole Rule.

Call to Action

Here’s the question I encourage every leader to ask themselves:

Do my people believe I genuinely care about them—or do they just hear me say that I do?

Take an honest look:

• Would your team say safety is a value—or just a rule?

• Do people feel respected under pressure?

• Is feedback timely, specific, and consistent?

• Do leaders at every level model care through their behavior—not just their words?

If the answers are unclear, that is a leadership opportunity.

Because caring leadership isn’t soft. It’s disciplined. It’s intentional. And

it is one of the most powerful drivers of sustainable performance.