Have you ever pondered this question, “What is the role and responsibility of today’s leaders?” Well, I have. In fact, I asked Dr. Dan Crosby a similar question on a recent episode of my podcast, Let’s Fix Work. Dan is an author, psychologist, and Chief Behavioral Officer at Brinker Capital. His primary focus is on behavioral economics and understanding how we make decisions around money.
When it comes to behavioral economics, it’s important to remember the human brain isn’t as evolved as it needs to be. I asked Dan whether or not we should be designing better employment experiences for our organizations and our people. Or more to the point, where can HR and our leaders be doing better?
Dan had this to say, “I really am a believer in the power of HR, organizational development, and leadership development in all sorts of HR adjacent functions. And I really do believe there is a big business benefit to these functions.”
Dan brought up an interesting point about HR and science too. He said, “HR needs to rise to the occasion and become increasingly scientific.”
What does he mean, exactly? Well, if HR and its adjacent functions can get more into behavioral analytics, form a deeper understanding of people, and speak the language of business; increasingly they’ll gain more credibility. With credibility, they’ll be more apt to be in a position of great leadership (because great leaders are always learning and growing) and bring their organization together.
The role and responsibility of today’s leaders is to keep learning, keep striving to fix themselves, and thus fix workplaces they manage.
If you are interested in the role behavioral economics plays in the market, the workplace, and how it affects our decisions, tune into this episode of Let’s Fix Work.