Caring: An Underrated Skill Critical for Lean Leaders

Caring: An Underrated Skill Critical for Lean Leaders

A caring supervisor can be the deciding factor between an employee engaging or remaining on the sidelines.

Caring is often categorized as a "soft skill", but this label can be misleading, as it is just as important as "hard skills". In fact,

soft skills (which should be renamed as "people skills" or "human skills") are the most critical contributors to hard, bottom-line results
.

This article focuses on the relationship between an employee and their direct supervisor, making a case for why a supervisor should care for those who report to them.

A supervisor demonstrates care in several ways, which will be reviewed in this article.

First, let's define "caring" in the context of the employee/supervisor relationship.

Author summary: Caring is crucial for lean leaders.

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IndustryWeek IndustryWeek — 2025-10-14

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