Want to seem like a leadership savant? Here’s a secret, you don’t have to be amazing at everything, except your relationship management skills. Often when we think about the importance of developing relationships, we focus on the client side or only our immediate team. Do not forget the importance of building a network within your organization both up, down, and across the organizational chart. Developing a positive reputation at all levels and across the organization is essential for your future success. You never know who you will need assistance from on a project, or who you may be working with in the future. Here’s how to make your leadership life easier.
The importance of relationship management in leadership
The skill and overall importance of relationship management in leadership cannot be understated. Relationship management as a concept is the strategic building of a positive foundation through engagement with customers and partnering with them, rather than a merely transactional relationship.
You can use this concept of relationship management in business when it comes to promoting your personal brand as a leader. Your goal is to build foundational relationships where you engage employees, partnering with them to understand their goals, collaborating with others, giving meaningful feedback on their performance in a timely manner, and quality performance reviews.
check out these how-to step by step posts for writing great quality performance reviews:
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Developing quality relationships – the essential skill
Want to succeed at relationship management? Try adopting a friendly leadership style.
While it may seem simple, there is always an opportunity in our day to day work to be more personable to those around us. By being friendly we open ourselves up to better opportunities to engage others and increase our likelihood to build a positive relationship with them. This positive relationship and their perception of you will naturally filter in to true relationship management activities.
Read more about the benefits of being a friendly leader and the positive impact that it makes on your team!
The benefits to your leadership from better relationship management skills
While I can preach the importance of relationship management in leadership for your team’s success, it is also great for your success and other’s impression of you.
You have a solid network
Want to know insider knowledge on who is hiring, about to retire, and make sure your resume gets on to the right desks? You have to network. The best way to network is to maintain a friendly relationship.
By being approachable, having positive conversations, and positive work histories with individuals you will benefit as a leader both at work, and within your professional network.
When you are a personable individual, you will be remembered by people who move on from your current organization.
People are more likely going to want to work with you
If you are looking for how to make your leadership life easier, try being someone you would want to work with – and no one wants to work with a jerk. When you are personable, people will want to be on your team, approach you with ideas, and collaborate with you on projects.
Staff feel that you understand their individual needs
Part of making your life easier as a leader is to take the time to understand your individual employee strengths, weaknesses and goals. Relationship management will get you answers that you need to be able to respond to those needs and build a foundational supportive positive relationship.
You can spot potential problems early
If you don’t want to look like a frantic leader who is always running around putting out fires, learn the pulse of your team so that you can spot issues early.
Relationship management as a leader involves high team engagement so that you get the feedback and staff will bring you problems early. The National Research Business Research supports the idea that you can resolve problems early before they become big problems when you have quality relationships with the people around you.
Failure is seen as a stepping stone
Failure sucks. Having to admit to someone that you dropped the ball is truly a humbling experience. Do you know how much easier it is to admit a problem to someone when you have an existing positive relationship with? You will get far more grace.
I can recall a time when a manager from another team had to call me several times with issues they caused. This was an extremely busy time at work and her team making an error was out of the ordinary.
Because we had a good foundational relationship and this was out of the ordinary, I was friendly and answered her with grace and understanding. Guess what? When I had to turn around and call them with an issue we caused, she responded with the same friendliness and understanding.
When it comes to how to make leadership easier – it start with you and how you are presenting yourself to everyone around you. By being friendly, people will want to work with you and you can use your relationship management techniques to build a good foundational relationship. Remember, smiling costs you nothing, but it could make your leadership life easier.