Are Your People Connections Positive or Negative?

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.

The art of connection begins with the skill of Positive Presence, an innovative thought model connecting workplace behaviour to positive human energy through a systematic, programmatic methodology equipping leaders with the knowledge and understanding necessary for developing and sustaining the mindset and behaviour skills needed for strong and lasting connections.