What is it that achieves results for organizations to succeed? Is it the methods, tools, technologies, protocols and systems, or is it the people? There is no doubt – it is your people that achieve results. The methods, tools, technologies, protocols and systems, are there only to enhance your peoples’ ability to perform.
It is with people, then, not with processes, that organizational leaders must form a long-lasting connection. This connection is what ultimately determines the success or failure of the leader specifically and the organization as a whole. People buy into their leaders before they buy into the organization’s mission, vision and values.
Employees who feel a connection with their leaders are engaged, cooperative, collaborative, participative, accountable, passionate about their work, and supportive of change. They are motivated to behave according to established skills, and abilities. An organization with such a workforce can dominate any market or industry with consistent, high quality, safety, service, financial, and operational outcomes.
People connection is a strategy that leaders use to demonstrate they care for and understand the needs of their employees. Connection is an expression of leader compassion, trust, security, and hope. You can care for people without leading them. You can never lead people without caring for them. A deep connection between the leader and employees raises everyone’s level of energy, engagement, motivation, and performance.
The principle of connection validates and puts into practice the concepts of self-awareness and collaboration. Self-awareness enables leaders to initiate connections with their employees, while trust and accountability – the imperatives of collaboration – allow leaders to sustain these connections.
Relationships, by their nature, require constant and consistent tending. The quality of care you put into these relationships translates into either a positive or negative experience. That is, the other person perceives every one of your interactions as good or bad. If you choose to behave poorly during an interaction, that experience will be considered negative; conversely, if you conduct yourself well that experience will be considered positive. The more your individual behaviour is seen as negative, the less likely you will be able to develop connections.
Over time, negative experiences erode a leader’s influence. This is particularly true for leaders who give plenty of lip service to forging effective relationships but do nothing to advance the cause. These leaders ignore or do not seek feedback, do not listen to others or share information with them, micromanage their staff, allow their emotions to control them, take accomplishments for granted, and offer more criticism than aid and resources. None of these behaviours is conducive to making and sustaining connections.
So if you want to increase the positive experiences and thus enhance your connections, you must improve your leader behaviour. Positive interactions therefore strengthen influence. This kind of connection achieves the following:
• Improves performance in all areas;
• Boosts morale, quality, and productivity;
• Promotes trust and accountability;
• Creates a culture in which work is meaningful and its performers are valued.
In this environment, the leaders are self-aware and serve as role models of responsible, professional behaviour. The employees, in turn, are highly collaborative; they understand what the organization is trying to achieve and how their behaviour and performance contribute to that bigger picture. Trust and accountability are not just expected, they become the norm.
If your leadership is all about targets, efficiencies, and execution, you may attain successful outcomes but only through the begrudging efforts of your people. The process of creating a transformational
culture has not changed despite the growing use of social media. Cultivating a high performance culture still requires leaders to build trust through mentoring, face-to-face meetings, vigorous feedback, and performance accountability. In a word, cultivating a high performance culture requires positive leader connection.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.