The best digital workplace leaders do something beautifully simple: they treat investment in people like it's the actual work, not something that happens after the real work is done.
There's a particular kind of leader you notice in digital workplace and service management functions. They're the ones who remember that the humans delivering the service are experiencing their own digital workplace at the same time they're building it for everyone else. And instead of seeing that as a contradiction or a hassle, they see it as something worth paying attention to.
What does that actually look like when you see it happening? It looks like someone who knows the names of the people who built the system they're talking about in a meeting. It looks like making sure that learning opportunities flow toward the people who are most curious about them, not just the people with the most seniority. It looks like creating space for the kind of problem-solving that only happens when people trust they won't be punished for trying something that doesn't work.
It looks like noticing when someone on your team has gotten good at something and naming it out loud. Not in a performance review, but in the moment, or in front of others. There's something about that kind of genuine recognition that changes how people think about their own contribution.
It looks like defending your team's capacity. Not in a combative way, but in a clear way. Saying yes to the work that matters and saying no to the work that doesn't, and being willing to explain why. It looks like knowing what your team actually needs to do their best work and treating that like it's not a luxury.
It looks like asking questions when you don't understand something instead of nodding and figuring it out later. It looks like being genuinely curious about how your team members think and what they notice that you might have missed.
There's something quietly powerful about organizations where this happens. The work gets better, sure, but more than that, the people doing the work feel like they matter. They feel like someone is paying attention to whether they're learning and growing. They feel like their leader thinks their time is valuable and worth protecting.
That matters in digital workplace functions more than most places, because the work is often invisible to the rest of the organization. The people doing it know whether they're being invested in or not. And when a leader shows up like that, it creates something worth showing up for in return.
It's not complicated. It's just consistent attention to the fact that your team is made of people, and people do their best work when someone believes in what they're capable of.