She discusses her new book “Authentic Leadership In the Workplace”

The Great Resignation is upon us, and the statistics are alarming.

According to a May 2022 study, more than 79% of employees will quit after receiving what they believe is inadequate support from management, with only 48% of workers believing that they have effective management at all. This has been a growing trend throughout the once stable work environment, with employees becoming more dissatisfied by a rigid culture unwilling to change. It has resulted in higher levels of stress, frustration and ultimately burnout. Regardless of the industry, the past few years have created a clarion call for leadership to either adapt or face an even greater exodus of reliable employees.

Dr. Sherrie Johnson, who has studied the trends in leadership, recently announced the publication of her first book, “Authentic Leadership In the Workplace,” scheduled for a July 13th release date. In it, she discusses her extensive study of not only what has caused such angst in employer-employee relationships but also what can be done to turn the tide. The longtime news reporter, now-turned-entrepreneur, spoke with the PW Perspective about the journey to create the book and its impact.

“During my doctoral dissertation (at Grand Canyon University) I did a qualitative study, and I spoke to employees at an organization.,” says Johnson. “Overwhelmingly, they really resonated with authentic leadership. It’s someone who is open, honest, transparent, and communicates well with employees.”

She continues. “When you have a leader that doesn’t communicate with employees, it becomes an organization that people don’t want to work for. More often, we’re seeing unethical leadership, and employees are suffering as a result. Malicious behavior, which can lead to mental disorders, and cause employees to leave.”

“Often, employees don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad leadership. I interviewed 15 employees, and I asked them questions about moral and ethical leadership. If a leader was immoral, made bad decisions, they didn’t want to work for them. Or they didn’t perform to the highest of their ability, because they weren’t motivated. When we found employers that had morals, those were the employees that were committed to their organization.”

She provides an example of how bad leadership made a difference during the global pandemic. “When it first happened,” she says, “the company sent everyone home. Well, the company brought people back, and many of the employees thought it was too soon to bring them back. ‘Sure enough, they brought them back, and a week later, there was a COVID surge, and they had to be sent back home. The employees became upset because they felt that leadership made a unilateral decision without consulting the employees.”

“Employees like to feel as if they have a voice, and value communication. Part of my book is how authentic leadership creates better work performance, because if there’s bad performance, you have to look to the leader.”

So, what could be defined as ethical leadership? “A very good idea for companies to have would be an ethics policy. That’s the roadmap for what is expected, and it spells out the expectations of employer and employee. During the pandemic, with everything shut down, one business had to have budget cuts. The employees were appreciative that the leaders came up front and told them about the state of the budget. However, the employees understood the situation, and some even came back. It goes back to transparency; being open and honest with your employees goes a long way, even in difficult times.”

She states that authentic leadership is a universally applied approach that can be implemented in all industries, from education to government. “My research was at college and public universities,” says Johnson. “However, these principals can be applied from non-profits to corporate environments. Authentic leadership can work in many facets.”

Her focus for the book was taking her dissertation and making it more conversational for supervisory roles. She explains how over the past two years there a change in the way leadership has been styles have cultivated to meet the needs of employees.

“The Great Resignation goes to show that if employees are not happy, they will leave,” she says. “This is why the book and my company [Sherrie Johnson Communications], I speak with leaders about these issues, because they are that important. Employees are now speaking out on issues that matter to them.”

She discusses how she meets with leaders in a group or individual session to discuss the issues they face and how they can utilize different types of leadership. “Relational transparency is an important part of being a leader,” she says. One example she discusses is how a college president decided to award a large sum of money to the band instead of the football team, despite the latter bringing in more revenue. It created descent between the programs. “People notice when things are being fair,” she says, “but when they respect the decision the leader is making, employees have shown to work harder.”

“Some of the information that I received is that, ‘Can you come and talk to my university [laughs.], but it showed me that this is something that needed to be discussed for a very long time. Even as I finished my research, many of the people took part in the interviews, they said this was a great opportunity to express the necessary issues going on in the workplace.”

Johnson believes that leadership understands the urgency of making the changes in their workplace. “Eventually, it’s going to come to a head,” she says. “Employees are suffering, and it’s time to improve morale. They should be able to come to a healthy work environment. The happier they are, the lower the turnover rate. Ultimately, at some point, you can’t continue to lead in fear. You have to do the right thing, and that goes back to ethical leadership.”

She says that by instituting ethical leadership, it has a residual effect on the company’s outlook. “If companies continue to have high turnover rates, and why some jobs are still available for months at a time, perhaps it’s time to stop and ask why we are not able to recruit or retain people?”

“It is an area that needs consideration, not to mention lawsuits. If there is unethical behavior, there’s the potential for litigation, so having authentic leadership also saves money.”

Finally, she discusses the mental aspects of working under unethical leadership. “More and more employees are falling victim to these behaviors, and it has caused more mental issues. We are now seeing more of a “see something, say something.”

“I want them to take from the book that leaders are more receptive when they are more authentic. Employees will perform better when they respect their leaders, and I want to encourage the leaders to apply different styles. Whether it’s servant leadership, or transformational leadership, be willing to incorporate these styles, depending on the situation, that would create a wonderful working environment.”

Pre-orders for her book can be found here, and for more information on her organization, visit her website.