Leadership Solutions

LEADERS BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

According to Deloitte LLP’s fourth annual Ethics & Workplace Survey, one-third of employed Americans plan to look for a new job when the economy gets better. Of this group of respondents, 48 percent cite a loss of trust in their employer and 46 percent say that a lack of transparent communication from their company’s leadership are their reasons for looking for new employment at the end of the recession. Additionally, 65 percent of Fortune 1000 executives who are concerned employees will be job hunting in the coming months believe trust will be a factor in a potential increase in voluntary turnover.

This underscores the fact that building constructive relationships is key to effective leadership.

People are often promoted through the management ranks based on their technical expertise. They are competent in the so-called “hard skills”. Yet leadership is not about technical ability. While in some cases a knowledge of how the work is done might be important, leaders must be competent in creating a work environment in which individuals feel valued and can thrive.

At the very least a leader must be seen to have the interests of the employees as a priority.

In the cut and thrust of business it is too easy to see employees as a resource, a means to get the job done and nothing else. It is said that in many businesses more care is given to the machinery than to the staff. Yet this neglect of care toward employees leads to a breakdown in trust. The staff feels as though the leadership is working against them rather than with them and that they are being kept out of the loop when it comes to what is really happening in the organisation.

Poor communication and lack of trust leads to unhappy employees. The expensive employee care programmes many companies put in place amount to nothing if the staff feel they cannot trust the leadership and that they are being kept in the dark.

More than that, it is tempting for organisations to exploit the lack of alternative job opportunities and to demand more and give less to their staff because, they believe, the employees have no alternative but to put up with it.

“Companies have had some tough years recently, and have asked a lot of their people. And, in return, they haven’t really been treating them well,” says business futurist Dr. Graeme Codrington.  “Some leaders have even said this out loud: it’s great that the job market has turned in the employer’s favour again, and our people have nowhere to go… we can treat them how we like now. OK, maybe that’s a touch overstated, but I know of many companies where that sentiment is true”.

If that is the case then companies are creating workforces of unhappy people. That immediately raises two danger areas. The first is spelt out in the Deloitte’s survey. Employees may stay in the job but are looking around for options and, given the chance, they will leave. The employer is then faced with the costs of replacement which include advertising the post, interviewing candidates and training the new person into the position – not to mention the loss of productivity while the new person gets up to speed.

The other danger area is the loss of productivity in a workforce which is fundamentally unhappy. Research emerging from studies in positive psychology shows direct links between happiness in the workplace and productivity.

Leaders who are prized for being technically proficient are more likely to focus on giving instructions and expecting staff to get on with the job, with unpleasant consequences for failure. While they may get the job done, in the long term they inhibit productivity because of their lack of attention to the human side of a leader’s role.

Good leaders focus first on relationship and then on function. They take time to build respect and trust through effective, clear communication. They use values to guide their management decisions, take care to thank their staff so that they know they are appreciated, assist their employees to find their strengths and then develop and work with them and they create place for fun and enjoyment in the workplace. They know that from building relationships in this way the employee’s function, what they do, will flow naturally and more efficiently. Through focussing on the “soft skills” of relationship building and leadership, the hard facts of business, high productivity and lower costs, fall into place.

Belinda Davies and Jonathan Payne are associates in Leadership Solutions, a consultancy the specializes in the development of leadership (www.leadershipsolutions.co.za). They may be contacted at 031 2662705.