“Those with more resources have a larger stewardship and duty of care. Being given power and charge over something which is entrusted to us, but not our possession, is both an honor and a privilege”
Behaviours of duty of care (11)
The Duty of Care capability starts with caring about the impact your actions and decisions have on others and extends to consideration for your organisation at large, the economy in which you operate and the environment and society you take from and contribute to. A duty of care is entrusted to a leader but is not their possession. It is the choice of service over self-interest and requires one to be deeply accountable for the outcomes of their organisation.
duty of care behaviours include:
takes responsibility for the wellbeing of his/her staff
This capability measures the degree to which a leader takes personal responsibility for the wellbeing of their staff. Balancing work load and work life balance, supporting staff when personal issues impact their work, ensuring staff have the facilities required to healthily fulfil their duties are all basic expressions of a responsibility for staff wellbeing. Wellbeing can sometimes fall to leaders with titles like People and Culture Manager, resulting in complacency or a lack of attention on behalf of the BU or division leader. As such this capability offers the opportunity to establish the responsibility of leaders and their actual capability (see sample below).
This sample result could demonstrate the participant:
- Has insufficiently addressed the wellbeing of his/her staff
- Doesn't feel they have the time to invest in wellbeing
- Consider wellbeing the responsibility of someone else in the business
shows active concern about the health of the organisation
From small to medium businesses, all the way up to enterprise scale organisations leaders can choose to care only for their patch or extend that care to the broader organisation. To truly be a steward and advocate of their organisations leaders need to have a genuine concern about their company's health. Such concern implies a greater care for and buy in to the organisation and influences the way direct reports feel about working for the company. This capability allows you to identify how concerned a leader truly is and whether they share that care with others.
Capably monitors and mitigates compliance risks
Compliance and quality assurance teams are a function in many organisations. Yet even where these teams are large and well resourced there is an onus on leaders to monitor and mitigate risks as they appear. It is easy for a leader to turn a blind eye to this responsibility, especially where there is a team devoted to it. This measure allows you to bring this behaviour into a leaders awareness if your organisation deems it important.