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Do you know what a poor relationship looks like? I can tell you. They don’t want to help. They don’t care. They are uninterested in what you are trying to achieve. That alone should tell you why relationships, and fostering them, are crucial.
poor relationship management = poor customer/team experience = poor culture
It’s also serving the people you lead by lifting them up. Sometimes, that’s praise. Sometimes, that’s difficult conversations to challenge them to elevate their performance. It’s always about helping them improve and grow.
Great leaders see the future first. When it comes to relationships, it means leaders see potential in others perhaps before they even see it themselves. And we foster that in people by doing for them whatever we can. Growing great is the goal – not just for ourselves, but for everybody on our team.
How can we be what others need?
- We have to know our teammates.
- We have to understand them.
- We have to connect with them by being truly interested in what they most want.
- We also have to figure out what they most want and how that fits within the context of our team – and the work. It doesn’t mean we can’t still serve them…but it may mean we have to help them figure out how their improved performance here can help them achieve what they most want. (HINT: We can’t behave like parents who force or coerce children to pursue what they most want. It means we must behave more like parents committed to helping the kids figure out what they most want.)
Why is any of this important?
Because it influences outcomes. It builds respect and trust while generating camaraderie. It impacts the customer experience.
We know what good relationships feel like…and bad ones, too. But if you are new at this, working on it, or good and it and want to continue to grow. How? Listen. Employ the leadership recipe we talked about in our first episodes: humility, curiosity, knowledge, understanding, and compassion.
Be genuine and honest. Be dependable. Be fair. Always do the right thing.
Lisa & Randy
About the hosts: Randy Cantrell brings over 4 decades of experience as a business leader and organization builder. Lisa Norris brings almost 3 decades of experience in HR and all things "people." Their shared passion for leadership and developing high-performing cultures provoked them to focus the Grow Great podcast on city government leadership.
The work is about achieving unprecedented success through accelerated learning in helping leaders and executives "figure it out."