In our leadership training, we have absolutely used clips from the television show The Office as examples of what NOT to do. I’m sure if you’re a fan, you can think of several right off the top of your mind. Well, I’m also a fan of the podcast “Office Ladies,” which is hosted by two of the actresses from the show, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Not only do they give you a breakdown of the episodes, but they talk a lot about their experience on the set and being part of this entire work environment for nine years – that’s a long time.
They were interviewing Steve Carell, who of course plays Michael on The Office, and one of the fans wrote in commenting about how often Jenna and Angela talk about Steve’s leadership; how consistent he was, and how he showed up every day as a true leader on the set. The fan asked him, “Steve, what is your advice for setting the tone at work and creating a supportive environment?” Steve definitely called out about how everyone had a vision and they were all in it together. Kind of like a startup at the beginning, they were scrappy. Nobody believed in them, and he definitely called out how everyone had gratitude for the work that they were doing.
But the thing he said first, that just literally rolled off his tongue without him even thinking about it, is that he was surrounded by really good, nice people. In fact, Steve himself – these are my words – doesn’t seem to have needed to manufacture an environment. He didn’t necessarily have to set a tone, because the people that were hired to begin with were all good, nice people. He commented all the way from craft services to hair and makeup, costume, wardrobe, the staff, the crew, the writers, and the actors.
They were all good, nice people, supportive of one another, and nobody seemed to have an ego that was trying to outperform the other.
You could argue and say that Steve Carell was the leading role in The Office for the first five seasons that he was part of it. But they all comment how Steve was never trying to outshine anyone, he was never trying to steal the joke. He, as the leader in that particular scene, would allow his what we might call a subordinate, his direct report, he allowed them to shine and rise.
But it all started with the fact that really good, nice people were hired. You as a leader, you shouldn’t have to necessarily manufacture a collaborative, supportive environment. Start by hiring good people. We often look at the list of skills and the job requirement, but if they’re meeting 75-80% of the skills, you can teach them the rest; they can be trained. Those technical, tactical skills can be learned, but you can’t necessarily teach people the values of humanity and being nice and caring and supporting of one another. Start with that.
Here’s the other thing I’ll just leave you with, that I personally acknowledge and recognize after listening to this podcast and hearing not only Jenna and Angela, but other actors and people who’ve worked with Steve Carell. He does a really good job of not only balancing humor with professionalism, but also balancing his own personal professional work ethic and high performance – he balances that with a humility factor. He’s striving to be the best, but he has humility to acknowledge that it’s not just about him.
So today, as leaders, hire the right people – the people that bring the same values to your team that you want to instill, so that you don’t have to manufacture or necessarily set the tone. But you will, because you are going to blend that high performance with that humility.