Leaders,

We continue to navigate a new way of working and relationships with our people and our teams have never been so important.

Relationships with your people are critical, how do you expect people to trust and respect you, and feel empowered to do their greatest work if you haven’t worked hard on establishing meaningful relationships with them.

Relationships take time, it’s a daily process and something we constantly need to be conscious of and on the lookout for opportunities to improve on.

How do you Build Big Relationships?

1) Know Your People - it starts by listening and getting to know the individual more. What are their hobbies? What do they feel passionate about? What makes them nervous? What drives them? What are their career aspirations? What are their values and beliefs? They won’t be open from day 1, but over time they’ll start to open up more to you.

2) Genuinely Care - care deeply about the people that you work with. Always have their best interests at heart, even if it’s an unpopular opinion, always do right by them.

3) Integrity - being open and honest about challenges and weaknesses builds trust. This involves admitting mistakes and taking ownership of them, and always doing the right thing even when no one is looking. It’s difficult for relationships to blossom if you’re not leading by example and developing trust with your people.

4) Engage rather than Instruct - I am sure you have seen the Leader vs Manager differences littered everywhere. Focus on spending as much of your time in Leader Mode. Manager’s instruct, Leader’s Engage. For example, rather than email or Slack an individual, “Hey Henry, do this task for me” (Manager Mode). Set up a call and get face time with them. By talking to them you are not only getting the task done, but you are also working on your relationship at the same time and empowering them to voice their opinion and contribute. “Hey Henry, I am working on this task and I would love to have your support and input, you free to jump on a quick call to talk through it?” (Leader Mode).

5) Humility - always see the organisation as flat, yes there is a hierarchy but don’t let this interfere with your relationships. Whether you are interacting with the CEO or Reception, treat everyone with respect and take a moment to find out how are they doing. Be kind. There should be a congruency between what you say and how you behave. Being vulnerable and admitting when you don’t have the answers or suck at something encourages other people to follow.

6) Consistency - Simon Sinek has a great video about this, which I’ll drop into the Resources below. There is no single event that occurs for you to establish relationships with your team. It’s a daily and ongoing process. It’s all the small events over a period of time that add up and accumulate. Consistent nurturing of the relationship will win you trust and respect. Always having their back, always supporting them, always empowering them, and always being attentive to their needs.

When you have developed strong relationships with the people in your team based on mutual trust and respect, you’ll begin to see a profound effect on your engagement levels.

All the best

David

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Resources Of The Week

• YouTube Video - Simon Sinek - Consistency - why the consistency of turning up every day builds relationships and why it’s not the intensity.

• Book - Dr Carol Dweck - Mindset - changing the way you think to fulfill your potential. See what is possible when you change your thinking.

• Blog Article - Seven Surprises for New Managers - common management misconceptions from the team at Mindtools. A great resource for all leaders.

Quote of the Week

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