I often see team leaders, managers, executives talk about their people.

They’re not your people.

Sure as a leader you’re nominally responsible for the results of your team’s work – so the question for you is “what’s the best approach to doing this with the group of people here, what does everyone need?”. In effect, the relationship is flipped – you are their person!

More broadly, the language we use sets the culture we work in. People would rather feel trusted than owned – so find different language that doesn’t infer an ownership relationship.

Focusing on individuals, feeling a need to assert a top down “my people”-ness usually means something has gone wrong. Time to step back and take a really good look at what.

At least there is one positive thing – if you’re out looking for a new role and see one described as “be my [insert role]”, you have a clear upfront signal about the level of agency you’ll have (none). Better than finding out after you’re already committed.

Seriously though, leaderfolks – they’re not your people.