Leadership is ultimately about people, but many leaders often lose sight of this amidst the busyness of their schedules and the pressures of deadlines. In order to develop a highly engaged, high-performing team, you must ensure that you don’t neglect building quality relationships with your followers.
While doing this isn’t necessarily easy, you can become a much better people manager by implementing the following three strategies:
1 – Build Relationships With Your People
Leadership that transforms lives and organizations is highly relational. To attract and retain high-performers, you must prioritize building relationships with your followers. As you do this, you’ll get to know their stories, strengths, and weaknesses. You’ll be able to understand their personal visions for their lives. You’ll become a leader they trust and want to follow with more energy and enthusiasm. Choose to be a relationship builder and watch how your influence grows.
2 – Foster Relationships Between Your People
Building personal relationships with your people is critical, but can’t be your end goal. You must also ensure that your followers are relating well with one another. Think like an air traffic controller who is seated higher up to see what’s happening on the ground so planes don’t collide on the runways or at the terminals. Think about how they monitor computer screens to ensure that there are no collisions in the air. As a leader, you can connect people to one another in ways they wouldn’t think about. You can head off problems before they happen. You can encourage your followers to build relationships with each other, which will strengthen the team. Choose to be a people connector.
3 – Champion Relationships In Your Organization
Steps one and two are focused on what you personally do, but this third step leads to your followers taking ownership of relationships as well. When you champion relationships throughout your organization, it becomes a better place to work. People become more energized as they feel more connected with their peers. You can’t be everywhere all the time, so make it a priority to encourage ongoing relationships to be built and fostered. While some people will take this more seriously than others, everyone can contribute.
Imagine having a workplace culture that is enjoyable and energizing.
Imagine knowing your people so well that you can help them succeed and grow faster than ever before.
Imagine having a team of well-connected people who are looking out for each other and are willing to step in and help as needed.
Make the commitment to prioritize relationships in your leadership and you’ll begin to reap the benefit of deeper trust and improved effort among your team.
In my new book, The Magnetic Leader: 18 Essential Actions of Leaders People Love to Follow, I go much deeper into Essential Action #14 – Prioritizes People. CLICK HERE to learn more and to purchase your copy today!
Until next time…make today GREAT!
