People Crave Good Leadership

Introduction:

Great leadership isn’t just about hitting targets—it’s about understanding and meeting the real needs of your people. Employees want clear, authentic guidance that makes them feel valued and part of a bigger purpose. Yet, many leaders overlook how much their teams depend on them for direction and growth. In today’s workplace, where emotional and professional needs are closely linked, leaders who focus on people—not just performance—unlock greater engagement, trust, and results.

Leaders often underestimate how much their people crave good leadership from them. There is an inherent desire in all of us for good, clear, transforming leadership. However, many leaders don’t see, can’t see, or choose not to see the needs their reports have in the workplace.

Key points:

• Employees crave clear, authentic leadership that makes them feel valued and connected to a bigger purpose.

• Leaders who focus on people—not just performance—unlock greater engagement, trust, and results.

• Meeting employees’ emotional, psychological, and professional needs is essential for optimal workplace performance.

Unlocking engagement, motivation, and workplace well-being

Employees are dynamic, emotional beings with mental, emotional, psychological, physiological, and behavioural needs that must be met in the workplace. Only when these are met are employees at their optimum, and best placed to perform in the workplace.

Whilst employees are obliged to maintain themselves, there are multiple areas where leaders have to play their part. Employees:

• Look to leaders to help them be part of something bigger than themselves – a team and community with a purpose, which is a key driver of employee engagement leadership.

• Be provided and supported with opportunities to learn, grow and flourish, a cornerstone of modern leadership development in UK best practices.

• Want to be best placed with information, direction and guidance to do their best, every day—a central pillar of motivation at work.

• Want to be motivated and enabled, with leadership coaching now recognised as a vital tool to unlock potential.

• To be informed, involved and engaged—fundamental to people-centric leadership and building trust.

• To have a strategic direction and purpose to their work in order to maintain focus.

• To have role models—leaders who demonstrate inclusive leadership and authenticity.

• Feel part of a psychologically safe environment. An environment which enables empowerment and supports psychological safety at work.

• To have their well-being considered and looked after in the workplace

• To experience support in navigating new ways of working, including hybrid workplace leadership for flexible, remote, and office-based teams.

Maslow’s renowned hierarchy of needs around motivation is a testament to the fact that employees need to have innate requirements met. Other models support this too, adding depth to the conversation around motivation at work and employee engagement leadership.

Within this section, we also have to recognise that leaders crave good leadership from their leaders too. It’s not just the leader/report relationship. Good leadership needs to be systemic rather than localised, and the adoption of people-centric leadership and inclusive leadership approaches helps foster a healthy leadership culture.

Challenges for leaders around meeting employee needs

It would be fair to say that a majority of leaders give only passing thought to the deeper needs of their reports. Many are purely performance-focused, target-driven (but this might be a cultural challenge). Some of these leaders don’t know how to overtly meet their employees’ emotional, physical and mental needs. Also, they fail to recognise the power and meaning of these needs by their people. Or, leaders can be afraid to venture into these need areas as there are too many unknowns, or it is too ‘personal’. Some don’t acknowledge that understanding or meeting these needs is part of their role. But I also accept that many leaders are simply overwhelmed with workload.

The correlation often is not seen between these needs and performance. For some leaders, they are too self-centric rather than people-centric. Many have received no leadership development, so lack the ‘how’ of supporting their people. So, there can be many reasons and excuses from a leader’s perspective.

People-centric leadership: The foundation of success

Leadership is first and foremost about people. If we have recruited the right people, who are doing the right things in the right way, at the right time, with the right leadership, the chances of success increase.

The first four are inextricably governed by the last.

Delivering what people are craving…

No single thing or approach will change the dynamics and help leaders think or act differently in supporting what people are craving. It has to be a more holistic and considered strategy if it is to be effective and sustained. Subscribing to a leadership model or framework and building in deliberate approaches and behaviours around it is a start. 

Greenleaf’s servant leadership model is an excellent foundation to achieve this. At its core, this approach is about ensuring your team has everything they need to succeed, rather than simply leading from the front or seeking personal recognition. Servant leaders focus on supporting and empowering their people, prioritising their growth and well-being.

Effective workplace coaches make the most of every opportunity to truly understand their team members. They gather valuable insights during:

• One-to-one meetings

• Appraisals

• Ad hoc conversations

• Team meetings

By actively listening and engaging in these moments, leaders can better support their teams and tailor their approach to individual needs.

Crucially, engaging in open expectation conversations is key. These discussions enable both leaders and employees to express their needs and desires, fostering trust and strengthening relationships. When leaders take the time to understand what matters most to their people, they create a more connected, motivated, and high-performing team.

Similarly, identifying and developing comfort and dialogue with models that focus on key areas such as Daniel Pink’s motivation model around autonomy, mastery and purpose. This develops competence and confidence in opening discussions and finding out what is important to employees and their work.

Fundamentally, however, leaders need to understand what leadership is, its purpose and what great leadership looks like, from employees’ perspectives as well as their own.

Hybrid workplace leadership, inclusive leadership, and a focus on psychological safety at work are increasingly seen as defining features of effective modern leaders. Where gaps are identified between a leader and their team, leadership coaching will play a crucial role in:

• Helping leaders view the world from employee perspectives.

• Identifying their own needs and transposing these onto their reports. 

• Building a tailored people-based leadership model. 

• Identifying people-focused leadership behaviours. 

• Empathy-based and more systemic thinking towards the team, individuals and performance. 

Ultimately, raising the leader’s own self-awareness of the people, their needs and the opportunities around them.

Conclusion: Lead with empathy to unlock your team’s potential

Great leadership can be defined by a genuine commitment to understanding and meeting the diverse needs of your people—not just achieving targets. 

When leaders prioritise empathy, foster psychological safety, and invest in their team’s growth and well-being, they unlock higher engagement, trust, and performance.

By embracing people-centric leadership and fostering open communication, you can cultivate a thriving, purpose-driven culture where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Ready to rethink workplace coaching?

Are you prepared to transform your leadership and truly meet the needs your people are craving? 

The most effective leaders don’t just chase targets—they invest in their teams, nurturing growth, building trust, and supporting well-being at every turn. At Abintus, we’re here to help you become that kind of leader, empowering you to unlock the full potential of your team and create lasting impact.

Take the first step towards people-centric leadership today.

Contact Abintus to discover how tailored leadership coaching and development can help you unlock your team’s full potential and create a thriving, high-performing workplace.

Meet author & Abintus coaching trainer, Nick

Nick is a qualified coach through the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and a Qualified Organisational Coach Supervisor through Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring.

Nick has trained over 250 people in coaching and mentoring skills and supervised over 80 more through their EMCC or Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) coaching qualifications.

As well as a degree in education, Nick has received development via ILM and Henley Business School. He continues to assess and internally verify qualification work for ILM.

He is an active member of the EMCC, where he has served as a liaison partner for large organisations and delivered ongoing professional development to support members’ growth and expertise.

Nick is a Certified DiSC Trainer and uses DiSC to help clients and teams understand their behaviour styles and how to develop them to improve team and individual relationships.

Nick is also the author of ‘Great Coaching Questions’, which combines Nick’s vast experience as a coach, coach and mentor trainer, his work with organisational leaders, managers and coaches and involvement with leadership and coaching qualifications.