Management is a social act. Conversations are your currency to generate excellence and bring out the best in others. Erode relationships, erode results.
The interweb is full of Top 5 this or Top 10 that, I have even penned a few myself. Lisa Haneberg offers Six Thoughts About Middle Management. What makes this stand out from the crowd, aside from it’s pithy and elegant style, is the value it places on the relational. I love the quote above.
Yet the link between relationships and results is one that seems to be anathema in conventional organisations that see the former as something that ‘just is’, and rarely worth investing in. Developing the relational skills of employees (and executives) should be right up at the top of the L&D plan. So what, I hear you cry? Where is the ROI? How will spending on fluffy stuff improve my bottom line, save me money, make me more money?…. Three examples of how improving the relational intelligence of employees helps the bottom line:
- Project teams, boards and cross-functional working improve in efficiency as conversations become straighter (see, for example, my post on the link between leadership success and relationships).
- Clients are more likely to ‘buy’ if they are dealing with someone who can intelligently and awarely build rapport, and thus trust.
- Customers who feel heard/valued/understood tend to come back. (Take a look at the Institute of Customer Service research on what constitutes excellence in that arena – relational skills are core.)
What do you do, pro-actively, to improve your own relational intelligence or that or your employees? And if not, why not?…
Loving your thinking!
I have my moments….. That is it for this week, I fear… Clunk…. there it goes, the master widget has sheered off my inspiration mainframe…. Seizing uuuuup…
Thanks so much for sharing my post with your readers and adding great thoughts about the importance of relational aspects of work.
I have also been calling it the “social context” but this is not such a great term in that it takes some dialogue just to explain it (a sure sign of a bad descriptor!).
You have my head peculating even more on the topic, thanks!
You are welcome. I think “social context” is as good as any other, in no small part due to the fact that most organisations shrink from the notion that the social, relational, emotional etc life of the system is anything other than incidental. To me, the link between relationships and results is a given, and it amazes me it should be a surprise to anyone. The more people who shine a light on this area, the better, so I am glad I found your blog! You may also be interested in what we (Bruce Lewin, my fellow co-founder) are trying to do with the FitForum.org. I would welcome your feedback.
Look forward to hearing the results of your percolating