Healthy workplace culture depends on leaders who can champion both People AND Results. When these two values are held in healthy tension, organizations thrive.
People – The commitment to value, support, and invest in employees. It means creating a workplace where people feel respected, fairly compensated, developed, cared for, and included in decisions that affect them.
Results – The commitment to efficiency, productivity, and profitability. It means setting high expectations, driving accountability, and making decisions that ensure the long-term sustainability and success of the business.
One common reason leaders struggle to manage this tension, is that they don’t involve their teams in understanding the numbers. The truth? Transparency isn’t a threat to results—it’s one of the best ways to drive them.
Show Them the Numbers!
One of the biggest leadership mistakes I see is keeping the numbers a secret. In many organizations, the financial picture—profit and loss statements, revenue targets, margins—is known only by senior leadership or finance. Everyone else is left guessing.
Why? Often it’s because leaders assume employees wouldn’t understand or care. Other times, it’s fear: if people knew the real numbers, they might demand more or question decisions. But here’s what I’ve learned from years of working with organizations around the world—when people understand how the business really works, trust grows, and results follow.
When employees see the full picture, they make better decisions, waste fewer resources, and start to think like owners. They begin to see how their work connects directly to the organization’s success. And perhaps most importantly, they realize that leadership isn’t sitting on a hidden pile of profit. Instead, they gain perspective on expenses, overhead, and investment—and that perspective builds empathy and alignment.
Transparency doesn’t mean oversharing every detail. It means sharing enough for people to see the story behind the numbers. That could look like high-level financials at team meetings, quarterly updates on performance metrics, or informal “fireside chats” where leaders walk through what’s driving success.
And here’s a simple gut check: if there’s something in your numbers that you’d feel uncomfortable sharing with your team, ask yourself why. Often that discomfort points to something that needs attention—an inequity, inefficiency, or blind spot that’s quietly eroding trust.
When you open up the books (appropriately), you don’t just share numbers—you share ownership. You invite your people into the bigger story of the business. And when they understand both sides of the equation—people AND results—they stop feeling like bystanders and start acting like partners in performance.
