The benefits of using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ statements at work are very well documented.
The use of ‘we’ is promoted by many organisational leaders, often put forward with the tagline ‘use ‘we’ to enhance collaboration and teamwork.’
So, let’s look at the positives of doing this:
First of all, as the tagline suggests, using ‘we’ in place of ‘I’ encourages teamwork. Using ‘we’ re-enforces the idea that everyone is working together towards a common goal, it is inclusive and collaborative therefore promoting better communication and environment.
Following on from this, using ‘we’ fosters a sense of unity. Teams working collaboratively and communicating well promotes a feeling of belonging and enhances culture. ‘We’ can make your employees really feel like a part of something larger than the team.
Trust and respect are the next positives often mentioned. The inclusiveness of ‘we’ often makes employees feel that Leadership is open and transparent which results in trust and mutual respect, and as such, paves the way for the confidence to bring new and innovative ideas to the work. Being part of a trustworthy and transparent team can also aid in problem solving, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
‘We’ promotes the sense of shared responsibility while also protecting team members from being singled out for blame when things go wrong. The ‘we’ therefore softens the blow of criticism while preventing egotism from individual praise.
Great stuff ay?
So why is it, as a leader of people, I have often encouraged the use of ‘I’ within the teams I’ve managed?
‘When presenting your work say I’. I can hear myself saying it now, as, I imagine, everyone I’ve ever managed can.
LinkedIn, Google, business articles and socials will tell me unequivocally that I am incorrect in doing this, and that ‘to be a true leader, you should say ‘we’’, but maybe somewhat controversially, I would like to offer a different perspective.
The reason I used to ask my team to present their work using ‘I’ was 3-fold.
The first thing I noticed when I encouraged I over we, was that self-belief in individuals grew. If a team member had produced excellent work, I wanted to celebrate that individual’s achievements. Not only that, but I wanted the individual to be noticed within the company for their achievements. In a ‘we’ situation, I could easily make everyone feel warm and fuzzy by praising individual contribution collectively, but what did that do to the person that had done the work? Where was the recognition?
As leaders, as much as we want everyone to be as conscientious and productive as each other on a team, this is rarely a reality, and dolloping out shared credit when it is not due, is surely a fantastic way to demotivate great employees. I found in avoiding shared credit, credit itself became more genuine, and therefore more sought after, and team members would start to strive for it. This often served to pull up lower performers and take the burden of those carrying their peers.
This then links to accountability. If you are accountable for something, it may be that you find yourself, at a time in your life, being criticised. Criticising collectively surely is not fair on the individual being criticised, as under the blanket of ‘we’ they cannot defend themselves, explain themselves or expect direct feedback. It no fairer on the individuals being criticised unnecessarily for work they may not have even had a part in.
Furthermore, the usage of ‘we’ allows the person that must give the feedback a defensible way to criticise others without having to take responsibility for the criticism. ‘We’ can therefore become a way of diffusing responsibility, so individuals do not have to bear responsibility.
Accountability using ‘I’ from both parties, I always found was the most mature and productive way to promote individual responsibility, which resulted in increased self-belief and, dare I say it, a genuine honesty and transparency across teams.
Finally, I found, ‘we’ could promote a false sense of team. Real community comes from actually helping each other out, not from manipulating language.
I believe whole-heartedly that there is a place for using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ in the modern workplace, and context and emotional intelligence should be used before you unsheathe either pronoun.
If you have worked on a project together collaboratively and equally, absolutely use ‘we’. If you are engaging your teams with business strategy, aims or values, use ‘we’. However, I do believe that “I” has its place and there are many pitfalls that could be avoided if recognition and accountability were not so readily blanketed as they can be today.
By Jill Barrowclough, Operations Director.